Liberalism, International Law, and Good Governance

Within the framework of realism, hegemony requires the use of certain instruments such as the international law to maintain its legitimacy and institutionalize its values. In fact, the stability of a hegemonic order and the continuation of the current situation could be really advantageous. Legitimization through the implementation of the international law has proven efficient in stabilizing the superior positions of the dominant countries. Known as central players in international politics to consolidate power, governments are immersed in the calculation of profits and costs. Hence, they prefer cooperation to favor their national interests. However, liberalism plays an undisputed role in developing the international law to establish ever-lasting peace. By tying the realization of international peace to the legitimacy of representative systems and the internal components of states, liberalism has opened an opportunity to improve human rights. Assuming that liberal international solidarity and peace are established through good governance at a domestic level, this paper aims to determine whether the approach of liberalism to the international law has managed to enhance the standards of governance in the community. For this purpose, the research literature was reviewed to collect data from documents, books, articles, websites, and other Internet-based sources. Finally, liberalism was introduced as a theoretical foundation of good governance to globalize the norms of the human rights in a bid to standardize governance, analyze the rise of liberal governments, and ensure and enforce the human rights.