with the same ‘freshwater’ universities that kept burning the flame of
laissez-faire ideology.”^88
What about political philosophy, a sub-field presumably immune to
pleas for either clean models or dirty hands? While it would be pre-
sumptuous to treat such a rich domain of inquiry in a paragraph, one
observation seems worth making. In his survey of the field, Canadian
philosopher Will Kymlicka begins by stating that the conventional
view is that political philosophers can essentially be classified according
to their position on a left–right continuum, with those on the left
stressing equality and advocating “some form of socialism,” and those
on the right emphasizing freedom and leaning toward “some form of
free-market capitalism.” This representation, suggests Kymlicka has
become unsatisfactory because all contemporary philosophers now
believe in equality, or in the idea that “each citizen is entitled to equal
concern and respect.” The argument no longer concerns “whether to
accept equality, but how best to interpret it:” “while leftists believe
that equality of income or wealth is a precondition for treating people
as equals, those on the right believe that equal rights over one’s labour
and property are a precondition for treating people as equals.”^89 The
central division of political philosophy thus remains one between the
left and the right, and it opposes, just as we suggested in Chapter1,
different understandings of equality.
Could international relations possibly be the only field of political
science to stand on the sidelines of this ubiquitous ideological con-
frontation? After all, within the discipline, the study of “IR” constitutes
something like a domain apart, with its own questions, approaches,
and theories. Unanimously acknowledged, the theoretical and empirical
complexity of international relations seems to challenge the relevance
of a distinction as simple as the left–right cleavage. Yet the incon-
gruity is only apparent. In fact, the left–right opposition provides an
unequaled roadmap for finding one’s way in the conceptual labyrinth
of world politics. Although this opposition is generally ignored by
scholars, it offers a powerful narrative, able to impart greater con-
sistency to the theoretical discussions of the field. By linking such
discussions to an ideological continuum coming from domestic and
(^88) Ibid., p. 390.
(^89) Will Kymlicka,Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, Oxford
University Press, 1990, pp. 1–5.
222 Left and Right in Global Politics