Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Eight
Conclusion: The Durability of Liberal International Order
For half a century, the United States held the keys to global order—and in many ways it still
does today. No country has ever been as powerful as the United States or had as many op-
portunities to put its mark on the organization of world politics. After the world wars, after
the Cold War, and again today, the United States has been in a unique position to lead in the
creation of rules and institutions that guide the global system. At key turning points, it stepped
forward with liberal ideas about world order and struggled to reconcile them with the geo-
political realities of the day. The United States has been a liberal order builder. It has sought
to create an open and loosely rule-based international order, anchored among the advanced
democracies. This vision of order was in part driven by America's national interests as a large
and advanced state seeking access to world markets. But it also reflected a set of calculations
about the virtues of a legitimate and durable international order that would provide a long-term
flow of economic and security benefits not just to the United States but to the wider world.
The pivotal moment in liberal order building occurred in the years after World War II. It
was then that America's desire for a congenial world order—open, stable, friendly—turned
into an agenda for the construction of a liberal hegemonic order. But this shift was not entirely
deliberate. The United States took charge of the liberal project and then found itself creating
and running an international order. America and liberal order became fused.
It was a distinctive type of order—organized around American hegemonic authority, open
markets, cooperative security, multilateral institutions, social bargains, and democratic com-
munity. It was also built on core hegemonic bargains. These bargains determined how power
and authority would be apportioned. So although the United States ran the liberal order and
projected power, it did so within a system of rules and institutions—of commitments and re-
Search WWH ::
Custom Search