realists recognize that ideas and internal politics matter. Their claim
is simply that they are not the main explanatory factor at work.^74 On
our part, we do not argue that the left–right debate, or any debate,
explains everything. We simply contend that debates matter and that,
on a global scale, no debate matters as much as this one. The second
argument is that there are many international developments that realism
explains poorly, in particular with respect to international cooperation,
the capacity of advanced democracies to compete in a peaceful way,
and the ongoing progress of international institutions.^75 To account for
such phenomena, approaches more sensitive to the role of domestic
forces are likely to be helpful. In this perspective, several studies have
established that, in democratic countries at least, foreign policy is
largely driven by partisan preferences. As Brian Rathbun observed, “the
values that parties represent in domestic politics...are often the values
underlying their foreign policy as well.”^76 Quite predictably, the left–
right cleavage that is so central at home has ramifications abroad. It
has been noted, for instance, that leftist governments tend to be more
favorable to antimilitarism, humanitarianism, and multilateralism.^77
One should thus accept that, even in the international arena, shared
norms and ideas contribute to shape the behavior of states.^78
A fifth counter-argument would emphasize the importance of civ-
ilizations and portray the left–right division as a Western imposition,
which in many countries remains at best an artificial importation,
without deep cultural or social roots. The best advocate of such a
position is Samuel Huntington, who argues that the defining conflicts
(^74) For a classic statement, see Kenneth N. Waltz,Man, the State, and War:
A Theoretical Analysis, revised edition, New York, Columbia University Press,
75 2001.
G. John Ikenberry,After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the
76 Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars, Princeton University Press, 2001, p. 13.
Brian C. Rathbun,Partisan Interventions: European Party Politics and Peace
77 Enforcement in the Balkans, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2004, p. 2.
Ibid., pp. 21–22; Brian C. Rathbun, “Hierarchy and Community at Home and
Abroad: Evidence of a Common Structure of Domestic and Foreign Policy
Beliefs in American Elites,”Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 51, no. 3, June
78 2007, 379–407.
Thomas Risse, “‘Let’s Argue!’: Communicative Action in World Politics,”
International Organization, vol. 54, no. 1, Winter 2000, 1–39; Harald Mu ̈ller,
“Arguing, Bargaining and All That: Communicative Action, Rationalist Theory
and the Logic of Appropriateness in International Relations,”European
Journal of International Relations, vol. 10, no. 3, 2004, 395–435.
A clash over equality 29