The richness of the liberal tradition in international relations: Karl Deutsch on political community and the European integration

Abstract

Karl Deutsch focused in his work on many social, political and technical aspects of building political community which can enrich our understanding of international cooperation and European integration. It is especially his concept of the political community that helps us to explain current problems of the European integration: namely, the current pre-occupation with the market and institutions leads to the neglect of the common redistribution and of the horizontal ties among the state institutions and among the peoples. This article also points to the tension between Deutsch’s awareness that the study of political communities requires the examination of values, love and spirituality, and his positivist, quantitative methods which do not allow for such an examination. This tension invites to a re-reading of Deutsch, which can enrich the liberal tradition of international relations (IR).