Notes on Ideology, International Order, and Foreign Policy

Abstract

The relevance of ideology to the study of international politics is, perhaps, more significant now than ever before. After the demise of the Soviet system, we bear witness to a steadfast economic, political, and military expansion of Western interests throughout international society. This enlargement is predictably accompanied by a self-serving discourse that offers the world no escape from the imperatives of an ideology that seeks to graft upon the world a particular view of domestic and international order. In this respect, I posit that it is the power of ideas, as well as material power, that is the cornerstone of …