Crisis of the Old Order - Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order - page 13

relations. That is, liberal order, in each of its nineteenth- and twentieth-century formations,
has been built on realist foundations. This is true in two respects. Most generally, over the
last two centuries, the construction of open and rule-based relations has been pursued by lib-
eral great powers as they operated in the wider system of states. At a deep or foundational
level in the modern era, the Westphalian system of states has prevailed, defined in terms of
the multipolar or bipolar organization of great powers and shared norms of state sovereignty.
It has been leading states, operating within this system of states, that have pursued liberal or-
der building.
Over the last two centuries, the great powers within this Westphalian system have evolved
principles and practices to manage and stabilize their relations. Beginning in 1815, successful
settlements were increasingly understood to be based on a set of principles of restraint and ac-
commodation. Embodying this “society of states” approach to international order, the Vienna
settlement integrated the defeated French, recognized legitimate French national and security
interests, and put in place a diplomatic process for resolving emerging problems on the basis
of shared principles and understandings. 23 The resulting Concert of Europe is widely seen as
a model of a stable and successful international order. The failure of the Versailles settlement
in 1919 to embody these restraint and accommodation principles is widely seen as a critical
source of the instability and war that followed. In contrast, in the settlement of World War II,
the United States undertook the comprehensive reconstruction of Germany and Japan as lib-
eral democratic states and their integration into the postwar American-led liberal internation-
al order—incorporating principles and practices of great-power restraint and accommodation
brought forward from earlier eras of order building within the Westphalian system. 24
Taken together, we can see several distinct eras of liberal order building, and across these
eras we can trace evolving ideas and practices of liberal international order. The American-
led liberal hegemonic order is only one type of liberal order. Liberal international order itself
has been pursued on the foundation of a state system in which the great powers have evolved
principles and practices of restraint and conflict management. These various “waves” and
“layers” of international order coexist within the contemporary global system.
Imperial and Liberal Rule
The United States emerged in the mid-twentieth century as the world's most powerful state. It
had the power not just to pursue its interests but to shape its global environment. It made stra-
tegic choices, deployed power, built institutions, forged partnerships, and produced a sprawl-
ing order. It was an order with many parts, features, and layers—global, regional, economic,
political, military, social, and ideological. But together, the parts constituted a political form-
ation—that is, a more or less coherent political order with a distinct logic and character. As