Europe’s Liberal Peace: Liberalism in Illiberal Times’

15 Apr 2024

Happening On 15/05/2024

Professor Andrew Cottey, Department of Government and Politics - Wednesday 15th May, 5-6.30pm

Collective Social Futures

Dora Allman Room, The Student Hub

Against the background of Russia’s continuing war against Ukraine – Europe’s largest armed conflict since the Second World War – Prof. Andrew Cottey will explore the sources of war and peace in Europe and the prospects for peace on the continent in the 2020s and beyond. Drawing on international relations theory, he will argue that a liberal peace emerged in Western Europe after 1945, was extended into much of Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s and 2000s, has fundamentally transformed international politics in Europe. For reasons that are likely to remain contested, however, Russia remains outside this liberal peace. Today, Europe’s liberal peace is threatened by illiberalism from without, in the form of Russia and other authoritarian powers, and within, in the form of populism. Cottey will also address the liberal imperialist critique of liberalism, arguing that it misunderstands the causes of war and peace in international politics. He will argue that we need to find a middle road between liberal hubris and liberal defeatism. Register at: https://forms.office.com/e/nDdwna2sPY