Crisis of the Old Order - Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order - page 2

In the decades after World War II, the United States engaged in the most ambitious and
far-reaching liberal order building the world had yet seen. It was a distinctive type of liber-
al international order—a liberal hegemonic order. The United States did not just encourage
open and rule-based order. It became the hegemonic organizer and manager of that order. The
American political system—and its alliances, technology, currency, and markets—became
fused to the wider liberal order. In the shadow of the Cold War, the United States became the
“owner and operator” of the liberal capitalist political system—supporting the rules and insti-
tutions of liberal internationalism but also enjoying special rights and privileges. It organized
and led an extended political system built around multilateral institutions, alliances, strategic
partners, and client states. This order is built on strategic understandings and hegemonic bar-
gains. The United States provided “services” to other states through the provision of security
and its commitment to stability and open markets.
In the fifty years following World War II, this American-led liberal hegemonic order has
been remarkably successful. It provided a stable foundation for decades of Western and glob-
al growth and advancement. The United States and its partners negotiated agreements and
built mechanisms that reopened the world economy, ushering in a golden era of economic
growth. West Germany and Japan were transformed from enemies into strategic partners, ul-
timately becoming the second- and third-largest economies in the world. The Western powers
also bound themselves together in pacts of mutual restraint and commitment, finding a solu-
tion to the centuries-old problem of how Germany, France, and the rest of Europe could exist
in peace—the great “quiet revolution” of the twentieth century. In later decades, non-Western
countries made transitions to democracy and market economy and integrated into this ex-
panding liberal hegemonic system. The Cold War ended peacefully and on terms favorable to
the West. The Western allies were able to both outperform the Soviet system and find ways
to signal restraint and accommodation as Soviet leaders made difficult choices to end hostil-
ities with old rivals. By the 1990s, this American-led order was at a zenith. Ideological and
geopolitical rivals to American leadership had disappeared. The United States stood at the
center of it all as the unipolar power. Its dynamic bundle of oversized capacities, interests,
and ideals constituted a remarkable achievement in the unfolding drama of the liberal inter-
national project.
In this topic, I explore the logic and character of this American liberal hegemonic order.
What are its inner workings and moving parts? How can we identify and understand the spe-
cific organizational logic of this liberal hegemonic order in the context of earlier efforts to
build liberal international order and the wider varieties of global and regional orders? How
is it different—if it is—from imperial forms of order? If it is a hierarchical order with liberal
characteristics, how do we make sense of its distinctive blend of command and reciprocity,
coercion and consent?