ILLIBERAL WORLD ORDER

From Greenland to the Panama Canal, the US has become an engine of international disorder, joining the likes of Russia, with its delusional war of aggression against Ukraine and mushrooming shadow war on the European Union

- Carl Bildt

It was once common to speak of a “liberal international order.” Even if the accompanying institutional arrangements were not always entirely liberal, international, or orderly, the label had its uses. After all, the purpose of an ideal is not to describe reality, but to guide behavior, and for many decades, most countries aspired to be part of the liberal order and to contribute to its development (even if some preferred to free ride or game the system).

Those days are clearly gone. We have entered a new era of global disorder. Obviously, the steady rise of China and other emerging economies was always going to pose a challenge to arrangements that were created by the Western powers after World War IL. But the decisive factor in the demise of the liberal international order is that its chief architect, the United States, has abandoned it. No longer do American leaders echo John F. Kennedy’s commitment to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”