October 9th

Four compentents of order

• pattern of activity

• that sustains the elementay or primary goals

• of a society

• accomplished by a set of (formal and informal) organizations and rules that maintain the order 

International order is

stable expectations in a confusing world without international government

Underlying explanations for international order - Power

• order is a byproduct of preferences of the most powerful state(s)

• Great powers establish membership rules

Underlying expectations or international order - Interests

• the international order advances interests of participating states

• the international order facilitates cooperation

Underlying explanations for international order - Values

• order based on shared principles that states consider desirable, proper, & appropriate

Imperial Expansion

In the 19th century, a “standard of civilization” was wielded by European empires and the United States to regulate and justify expansion

Imperial Relations with two logics:

• Equitable interdependency between “civilized” powers

• Paternalistic dependency of “uncivilized” people

Post-WW1 International Order Principles

• Sovereign equality, but mostly for U.S. Europe

• Ban on agressive war (League of Nations)

• Market-based global economy:

  • reflects preferences of victorious powers 

  • great depression & tariffs 

• Collapses during 1930s, leading to WW2

  • Axis tried to build their international order

Rethinking Wilsonianism

• historically Wilson was seen positively

• proposes that a fair peace after WW2 should rest on 14 points including

  • transparent peace agreements

  • self-determinations of peoples

  • league of nations to preserve peace 

• Legacy complicated by racism:

  • worried about impact of WW1 as war among “white powers”

• Advocated for self-determination of peoples, but only white peoples 

• Vetoed Japanese Racial Equality Proposal

Liberal International Order

After WW2, the United States crafted a liberal international order with

• liberal characteristics (open, rule-based, and restrained relations among states)

• liberal values (economic interdependence, human rights, democracy)

Post WW2 Liberal International Order

Uncomfortable fusion of two major international projects:

• Westphalian sovereignty 

• Liberalism reflecting rise of UK and US as economic powers in 19th and 20th centuries

  • revived through improvisation by United States after 1945 to avoid repetition of two global threats: Great Depression & WW2

• As new threats emerge, new regimes, institutions, and principles are developed or improvised in response

  • Sedimentary layers in the international order

Key Principles of Liberal International Order

• sovereignty

• collective security 

• global economy 

• universal human rights

Key Principles of Liberal International Order: Sovereignty 

sovereign equality

territorial integrity 

self-determination 

Key Principles of Liberal International Order: Collective secuirty 

ban on aggressive war

non-proliferation of WMD

International secuirty organizations

Key Principles of Liberal International Order: Global Economy

Free trade

International economic organizations 

Rules based system

Key Principles of Liberal International Order: Universal Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Responsibility to protect

Who Does the Liberal International Order Help?

Liberals acknowlege that the Liberal International Order is asymmetrical:

• Great and primarily Western powers lead processes of inclusion or exclusion when ordering 

  • Great powers usually get more privileges (veto powers)

But, according to liberals:

• Great Powers, in exchange, get more responsibilites, e.g., providing security and stability and the promise of restrained international relations 

Liberals argue the order is based on consent

Does the Liberal International Order help the Global South?

It’s complicated

• Global South values predictability and stability

• Global South has helped to build the LIO and uses its components as tools, e.g., principle of nonintervention

• But the LIO is asymmetrical

Self Determination and Deconolonization

Black and African activists and political leaders rally developing world behind the concept of self determination

• Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) & W.E.B Dubois (US)

• Linked violence leading up to WW2 to struggles among colonial powers 

• Self-determination as a conflict reducing mechanism

• Citicize colonaism as perpetrating an international racial heirarchy 

Overcoming Resistance to Self-Determination

Imperial powers push back during 1950s and argue that:

• Human rights are individual, not collective 

• Self-determination had a political not just legal dimension 

• Self-determination is a duty, not a right

Developing states worked via instiutions (liberalism):

• non-aligned movement created (1955, 1961)

• developing states used majority in the General Assembly, where they outnumbered colonial powers, to pass resolutions on self-determination 

US and Soviet Union opposed colonialism (realism):

• Maybe principled oppposition 

• But also power politics: 

  • Get the declining colonial empires out of the way so that superpowers could have the upper hand

Global South Critique of Liberal International Order

Newly independent states faced common issues, to varying degrees:

• Military: unable to defend sovereignty by force

• Economy: depend on international capital markets, foregin assistance, or technology transfers to promote development

• Politics: Unstable or emerging political structures

Leaders of newly independent states share common critique

• Global market-based economy exploits developing countries 

• Great powers are not abiding to their commitments to respect sovereignty

• Liberal international order is unequal (rules-based for some, not all)

• South-South solidarity is paramount to resist great power dominance 

What do Emerging Powers want?

• They see international order as frozen, reflecting a distribution of power that is no longer accurate.

• Critical of U.S. unilateralism.

• Not strong enough alone to compel exisitng great powers to make changes.

• Reformist powers seek incremental change:

  • UN Security Council reform

  • IMF voting rights reform

• Revisionist powers seek a new international order

  • New Development Bank (BRICS)

  • Belt and Road Inititave (China)

Does the Liberal International Order Help People?

It’s complicated:

• The LIO has tools to pormote the wellebing of people, i.e., human rights

• The LIO has tools to address humanitarian crimes and crises

• But the LIO focuses on states 

• Controversial use of liberal values 

Nonintervention & Humanitarian Intervention

1980s-1990s:

• Intrastate conflicts, civil wars, humanitarian crises, how to respond?

• UN Peacekeeping Operations to assit in laying the foundations for peace

Responsibility to Protect:

• 2001: Canadian proposal

• 2005: Codified in UN document

• 2011: First time military force was used under R2P (Libya)

Does the LIO help the Global North? It’s complicated

• Some leaders in Western democracies question the value of the LIO and dislike limited imposed by LIO

• Sense of grievance against elites who benefit from the LIO