Conclusions and Ways Forward

It is safe to conclude that IR scholars have ignored classical liberalism and largely misinterpreted or overlooked the international thought of Hume, Smith, Mises, and Hayek. The result is an unbalanced and to an important extent ill-informed portrayal of liberalism in IR. The most important reasons for this omission and its implications for IR are the subject of this concluding chapter. Along the way answers to the research questions and themes set out in the introduction are provided. The chapter closes with some recommendations for future research.