International Free Trade and World Peace Essay -- Politics Political S

International Free Trade and World Peace When analyzing barters effect on state behavior, it is not the mere existence of trade between countries that should be central, rather, the nature of trade that is crucial. This distinction will be explored by studying the arguments of key economic and political thinkers of both the 18th and 20th centuries. The general nature of trade, the role of national government regarding trade and security, trades capacity to tie belligerent nations, and finally, the influence of international economic institutions will be explored. In an attempt to present a fairly broad range of sources, this study features the ideas of quatern influential authors from two time periods and continents from the 18th Century, Adam Smith and Alexander Hamilton, and from the 20th Century, John Maynard Keynes and Secretary of State Cordell Hull.My thesis is that the four authors examined actually hold with one another on the connection between free trade and peace, desp ite the discordant resonance of their arguments. Due to the nature of trade in Hamilton and Smiths time, their assertions that trade had ambiguous, if not adverse effects on state behavior is equivalent to Hulls statement that trade under the auspices of international organizations ensured peace. Almost all trade, up until the foundation of post-W.W.II international economic bodies, was practiced in an opaque, unfair, and mercantilist manner. Both Keynes and Hull, who argue that trade is pacific, lived in a rapidly liberalizing environment where international organizations were gaining legitimacy and influence. Thus, the conclusion of all four authors can be modified to state that trade is pacific only when it is conducted in an open, fre... ...The Memoirs of Cordell Hull. New York Macmillan.Keynes, John Maynard. 1919. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. capital of the United Kingdom Macmillan. ________. 1922. A Revision of the Treaty. New York Harcourt, Brace and Company.____ __. In Moggridge, Donald. ed. 1980. The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes Activities 1941-1946. London Macmillan.Kramnick, Isaac. ed. 1987. The Federalist Papers. London Penguin Books. 1788Moggridge, Donald. ed. 1980. The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes Activities 1941-1946. London Macmillan.Raphael, D.D. 1985. Adam Smith. London Oxford University Press.Smith, Adam. 1766. Lectures on Jurisprudence. Cited in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.________. 1981. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis Liberty Fund. 1776