quality:corruption
History of liberalism

The intellectual basis of liberal theory is often cited as Immanuel Kant 's essay Perpetual Peace from 1795. In it, he postulates that states, over time, through increased political and economic cooperation, will come to resemble an international federation—a world government; which will be characterised by continual peace and cooperation. In modern times, liberal international relations theory arose after World War I in response to the ability of states to control and limit war in their international relations. Early adherents include Woodrow Wilson and Norman Angell, who argued that states mutually gained from cooperation and that war was so destructive as to be essentially futile. Liberalism was not recognized as a coherent theory as such until it was collectively and derisively termed idealism by E. H. Carr. A new version of "idealism" that focused on human rights as the basis of the legitimacy of international law was advanced by Hans Köchler.

Major theorists include Montesquieu, Immanuel Kant, Michael W. Doyle, Francis Fukuyama, and Helen Milner.