Horizontal and vertical multilateralism and the liberal peace

This chapter takes as its starting point the debate about the qualities and dynamics of the liberal peace in the context of multilateral relations between IOs, states, NGOs and other non-state actors. The “problem of peace” in most regions of the world has been dealt with by strategies of both elite-level multilateralism and the promotion of vibrant civil societies, in the context of democratization, human rights, the rule of law, and development. These dimensions of the contemporary project to construct the liberal peace encompass the activities of a broad range of state, official, agency, IO, regional organizations (RO), and NGO actors, which take as their starting point an assumed conceptualization of the “liberal peace”, present in most academic and policy documentation.