Internationalism (politics)

Internationalism is a political principle which transcends nationalism and advocates a greater political or economic cooperation among nations and people.

Supporters of this principle are referred to as internationalists, and generally believe that the people of the world should unite across national, political, cultural, racial, or class boundaries to advance their common interests, or that the governments of the world should cooperate because their mutual long-term interests are of greater importance than their short-term disputes.

Internationalism is, in general, opposed to nationalism, jingoism or chauvinism, and war, and proponents can include supporters of any of the four socialist Internationals and organizations such as the United Nations or the World Federalist Movement.

In 19th-century UK there was a liberal internationalist strand of political thought epitomized by Richard Cobden and John Bright. Cobden and Bright were against the protectionist Corn Laws and in a speech at Covent Garden on September 28, 1843 Cobden outlined his utopian brand of internationalism:

Free Trade! What is it? Why, breaking down the barriers that separate nations; those barriers behind which nestle the feelings of pride, revenge, hatred and jealously, which every now and then burst their bounds and deluge whole countries with blood... [1]

Cobden believed that Free Trade would pacify the world by interdependence, an idea also expressed by Adam Smith in his The Wealth of Nations and common to many liberals of the time. A belief in the idea of the moral law and an inherent goodness in human nature also inspired their faith in internationalism.

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