Contemporary Geopolitics: Between Rules-Based Order and Totalitarian Revisionism

This chapter outlines a divergence at the current geopolitical conjuncture between two trends: liberal internationalism and totalitarian revisionism. It describes how the rules-based order constructed after the Second World War faces existential challenges from revisionist powers having features of totalitarianism, chiefly Russia, China, Iran, and Islamic Jihadists, and argues that democracies committed to an open world of optimal economic and cultural exchange should respond with awareness of the dangers they present. The chapter cautions against both nationalist isolationism and naïve liberal globalism in favor of a foreign policy grounded in conservative internationalism. It concludes by discussing more robust, concerted, and effective international cooperation in defense of free markets, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.