John Stuart Mill on International Legitimacy

Abstract

This article locates the perceived antipathy that Mill thought inherent to representative government and liberty in his contributions to debates surrounding nineteenth century international crises, and seeks to address an emerging interpretation which casts Mill’s IR philosophy as inherently imperial. Additional themes to be explored are the centrality of a ‘philosophy of history’ in Mill’s political thought and the extent to which Mill can legitimately be considered the intellectual precursor of modern liberal international thought.