This book critically investigates modern international law - assessing the range of its ambitions and, crucially, its failings. Drawing upon the history of early modern political thought and contemporary critical theory, the book argues that modern international law needs to be understood as an extension of the political and economic tradition of liberalism. Liberalism's promise of the 'good' is international law's promise. But from the beginning, and throughout modernity, this promise is broken. Tarik Kochi trace the outlines of this liberal promise - of liberty and security - obtained...