The Upsurge, Overreach and Unravelling of the ‘Liberal International Order’

2026/01/29 by Laurence Whitehead · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Global Peace and Security Dynamics #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics #International Law and Human Rights

paper · doi:10.1177/00219096251380760

openalex publication_date 2026/01/29 · openalex created_date 2026/02/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/07

Abstract

The idea of a ‘Liberal International Order’ has a long and controversial history. Until 1989, it was a fiercely contested project, but during the ‘unipolar moment’ of the 1990s, it underwent an unprecedented upsurge and appeared to achieve hegemonic status. This article offers a retrospective analysis, viewing the ensuing cycle as a discursive metanarrative, and covering the ensuing overreach and its more recent unravelling. It concludes with an overview of alternative conceptions of liberal order, and some brief reflections on how a revised Liberal International Order (LIO) might regain some of the ground it has lost, and what that would involve.

Citations

• Why the Liberal World Order Will Survive

Discussions

• The upsurge, overreach and unravelling of the ‘Liberal International Order’ doi.org/10.1177/0021... Paper in Journal of Asian and African Studies by @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Senior Research Fellow [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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