Conclusion: The Durability of Liberal International Order - Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order - page 245

Grand Strategy as Liberal Order Building
American dominance of the global system will eventually yield to the rise of other powerful
states, including, of course, China. The unipolar moment will pass. The global distribution
of power is always shifting. In facing these circumstances, American grand strategy should
be informed by answers to this question: what sort of international order would we like to
see in place in 2020 or 2030 when America is less powerful? We might call this the great
neo-Rawlsian question of our era. It was the distinguished political philosopher John Rawls
who suggested that political institutions should be designed behind a veil of ignorance, that
is, under conditions where the architects of the institutions did not know precisely where
they would be within the resulting socioeconomic system. This thought experiment forced
the institution builders to design institutions that would safeguard their interests regardless
of where they ended up, weak or strong, rich or poor. 13 The United States needs to engage
in a similar thought experiment. What institutions should we try to put in place today that
will safeguard our interests in future decades when we will not be a unipolar power, doing so
when we are at least a bit uncertain where we will be within the wider and shifting distribu-
tion of power?
The answer to this neo-Rawlsian question is clear: we should be planting the roots of a
reformed liberal international order as deeply as possible. The idea is to make the liberal or-
der so expansive and institutionalized that China will have no choice but to join and operate
within it. China and greater Asia will inevitably have more power and authority than they do
today. America's goal should be to see that Chinese power is exercised as much as possible
within rules and institutions that we have crafted with other liberal states over the last cen-
tury, and in which we ourselves want to operate, given the more crowded world of the future.
America's position in the global system may decline but the international order it leads can
remain the dominating logic of the twenty-first century.
Where does this leave American grand strategy? Grand strategy is, as Barry Posen argues,
“a state's theory about how it can best cause security for itself.” 14 As such, it is an exercise
in public worrying about the future—and doing something about it. Grand strategy is a set of
coordinated and sustained policies designed to address the long-term threats and opportunit-
ies that lie beyond the country's shores. Given the great shifts in the global system and the
crisis of liberal hegemonic order, how should the United States pursue grand strategy in the
coming years? The answer that emerges from this topic is that the United States should work
with others to rebuild and renew the institutional foundations of the liberal international order
and, along the way, reestablish its own authority as a global leader. The United States is go-
ing to need to invest in re-creating the basic governance institutions of the system—invest in
alliances, partnerships, multilateral institutions, special relationships, great-power concerts,