Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Dilemmas of Liberal International Order
Liberal international order is defined by its open and rule-based character. Openness is re-
flected in the relatively low barriers to trade and exchange between states. In a liberal order,
states—and their societies—have access to each other. Goods, people, and ideas can flow
across borders. Liberal international order is rule-based in the sense that order is based on
agreed-upon rules and institutions. The rules and institutions themselves may bear the marks
of power disparities that allow some states more influence in shaping and operating the rules
and institutions. But the rules and institutions still are more or less consensual and legitim-
ate. They emerge from bargaining and agreement between states and they operate—at least
to some significant extent—independently of state power. Overall, liberal international order
is multilateral in the sense that openness and rules are inclusive and nondiscriminatory. All
states within the liberal international order can expect something close to equal access and
equal treatment.
This vision of liberal international order, as we have seen in earlier chapters, has been
championed by leading liberal states at various junctures across the last two centuries. It is a
vision of order that has been more fully realized in some decades and eras than others, and its
logic has been reflected in some regions of the world more than others. The agenda of liberal
order building has also changed and evolved. Woodrow Wilson's vision was different from
Harry Truman's, and the contemporary agenda is different still. Liberal order—as a vision
and real-world project—has also coexisted with other visions. Likewise, the organizational
logic of liberal order has coexisted with other organizational logics. If liberal order is—at its
heart—open and rule-based order based on consent, it has in the real world also drawn upon
and coexisted with other organizational logics of order, namely balance and command.
It is not surprising, therefore, that dilemmas and tensions attend the liberal vision and its
real-world political formations. These are intellectual tensions but also political ones. These
dilemmas and tensions have always existed. But in the last decade, they have come to the sur-
face in new and particularly visible ways that have called into question the logic and viability
of liberal international order. The shape and character of liberal order in the next era will be
determined in part as states grapple with these dilemmas and tensions.
Liberal Internationalism and the Balance of Power
The liberal project, in all its various manifestations, is animated by a vision of a one-world
system of rule-based order. But the emergence of law and institutionalized cooperation in
the modern era has also rested on a Westphalian system of balanced power and sovereign
states. These traditional pillars of realist international order are, for liberal internationalists,
both a blessing and a curse. Today, the balance-of-power underpinnings of the system have
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