Description
Love appears an anathema to liberalism and its preoccupation with reason and interest. Yet, love forms part of the ‘normative complex’ (Phillips 2011) that produces and sustains the liberal international order. This article seeks to examine this paradox. Specifically, it asks: What insights might be gained into the logics of the liberal international order by better understanding its affective underpinnings? In a bid to answer this question, the article proceeds in three parts. First, it considers how and why the eschewal of love is commonplace in liberalism. Second, it uncovers love’s integral role in the liberal international imaginary of order, evident in the evocation of love in the constitution and defence of liberal community. Third, it posits that the complex of ‘liberal international love’ reveals the mutually constitutive role of affect and emotion both in the production and sustenance, and the promise and peril of the present international order.
