The United States and the Liberal International Order, 1945–2023

By the end of the twentieth century, the Cold War was over; economic prosperity and liberal, free nation states seemed to be spreading worldwide, while pundits pronounced that the United States was at the peak of its global influence. The so-called liberal international order, set in motion from Washington, DC, at World War II’s conclusion, appeared to have reached its long dreamt of ascendancy, to have tamed the provocations of classical geopolitics – which postulated a world of geographical difference and great power rivalry. That order, pieced together chiefly by the United States, merged political, economic, financial, and humanitarian features into a cooperative multilateral structure, with the United States as the centerpiece nation. From its beginnings, it was plagued by a bipolar Cold War between former wartime allies, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and the United States. The end of that contest did not bring the desired utopia. Terrorist attacks; domestic differences within the United States about the meaning and functioning of liberalism, government, and international affairs; economic distress at home and abroad; a flourishing anti-globalist populism and illiberalism; a rising, undaunted China; and a disruptive war in Ukraine all left the world questioning if the liberal international order could – or should – survive.