Liberalism (IR)

The international relations tradition, associated here with Joseph Nye, that accepts anarchy as a structural fact but argues international institutions, economic interdependence, and shared norms meaningfully shape state behavior beyond raw power calculations. Points to the sustained, coordinated Western sanctions and weapons-supply response to the 2022 invasion as evidence institutions matter — while its own claim that dense economic interdependence constrains conflict by raising its costs failed its most direct test, since Russia's deep pre-war energy entanglement with Europe did not prevent the invasion.

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