[Verse 1]
Königsberg candle, seventeen ninety-five,
Kant scribbles "Perpetual Peace" to keep the republics alive
Says if the people vote the bill for blood,
They'll think twice before they flood the fields with mud
Two centuries later, Doyle counts the wars,
Republics never duel each other behind their own doors
Democracies bicker, they shout, they blame,
But the cannons stay quiet in the house of the same name
[Chorus]
Vote for peace and trade for gain,
Treaties tangle up the chain
Kant to Keohane, hear it ring:
Republics rarely raise the thing
That's the liberal party line —
Cooperate and intertwine
Anarchy ain't a lonely cell
When institutions ring the bell
[Verse 2]
Seventy-seven, Keohane and Nye
Drew a web where the players multiply
Not just soldiers, not just kings,
Bankers, airlines, satellite strings
Multiple channels, multiple menus,
Missiles aren't the only venue
Interdependence, tangled and complex,
Spill your coffee here, it stains the check in Tokyo next
[Verse 3]
Nineteen eighty-four, Keohane writes again,
No king of the castle, still the players play to win
Institutions referee without a crown,
Rules reduce the odds of getting let down
Information flows, the shadow of the future looms,
Cheat today, and lose tomorrow's room
Anarchy's a jungle, sure, but vines can bend to law,
Cooperation grows in the cracks nobody saw
[Chorus]
Vote for peace and trade for gain,
Treaties tangle up the chain
Kant to Keohane, hear it ring:
Republics rarely raise the thing
That's the liberal party line —
Cooperate and intertwine
Anarchy ain't a lonely cell
When institutions ring the bell
[Verse 4]
Trade ties a rope around the throat of war,
Torch the ledger, torch the factory floor
Nineteen nineteen, League of Nations takes a bow,
Wilson's dream without the teeth, it buckles anyhow
No muscle, no America, the hinges give away,
Tyrants walk on through the unguarded hallway
But the blueprint doesn't burn up with the rubble,
San Francisco, forty-five, it rises from the trouble
Charter's signed, the UN takes the stage,
A sketch of hope matures into a page
[Bridge]
This is the thread that stitches the whole course together,
Institutions, markets, treaties like a tether
From Kant's quiet candle to the trading floor's noise,
Liberalism bets on reason over boys and their toys
Commerce over cannon fire, ballots over blades,
Count the handshakes, not the body count it trades
[Chorus]
Vote for peace and trade for gain,
Treaties tangle up the chain
Kant to Keohane, hear it ring:
Republics rarely raise the thing
That's the liberal party line —
Cooperate and intertwine
Anarchy ain't a lonely cell
When institutions ring the bell
[Outro]
Vote, trade, treaty, trust —
Liberal peace, not liberal dust
Kant said it, Doyle found it true,
Keohane built the bridge we're walking through