What is the liberal international order? How did it come about?And is it worth strengthening?

1. Dhruva Jaishankar

2. What is the liberal international
order?
How did it come about?
And is it worth strengthening?

3. Westphalian Sovereignty: “Cuius regio, eius religio”
(Territorial sovereignty and non-interference)

4. AMERICAN REVOLUTION FRENCH REVOLUTION

5. BALANCE OF POWER COLONIALISM & SLAVERY

6. Le Colloque Walter Lippmann, Paris
(1938): Friedrich Hayek, Walter
Lippmann, Alexander Rustow, Raymond
Aron

7. "In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world
founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—
everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means
economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy
peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a
world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough
fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical
aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world
attainable in our own time and generation.”

8. The President of the United States and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing H. M. Government in the United Kingdom, being met
together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their
hopes for a better future for the world.
1. Their countries seek no aggrandissement, territorial or other.
2. They desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned.
3. They respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of Government under which they will live; and they wish to see
sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.
4. They will endeavour with due respect for their existing obligations, to further enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of
access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.
5. They desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field, with the object
of securing for all improved labour standards, economic advancement, and social security.
6. After the final destruction of Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in
safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear
and want.
7. Such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance.
8. They believe all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the
use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea, or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which
threaten, or may threaten aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of
general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable
measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armament."

9. NATO
MARSHALL PLAN/
BRETTON WOODS

10. Saw the preservation of the liberal order
(although often through illiberal means).

11. Why post-war institutions
survived post-1991:
1. The post-war international
order was built on consent.
2. Democracies mute the
importance of power
disparities.
(G. John Ikenberry, After
Victory and Liberal Leviathan)

12. International institutions are
only as effective as the
great powers allow them to
be. (Mark Mazower)
In practice, the UN has
emphasized the “principle
of the sovereign equality of
all its Members” (Art. 2 of
UN Charter) over liberal
values (e.g. UNHRC,
Internet Governance)

13. I. Freedom: Freedom of Speech and
Worship (of Expression and Action)
II. Security: Freedom from Fear
III. Prosperity: Freedom from Want
IV. Internationalism: “…everywhere in the
world”

14. Paintings by Norman Rockwell

15. The end point of man’s ideological
evolution?
An unachievable utopia?
All forms of government are fallible; an
open society is one that can adapt, and
only a democracy can adapt and reform
without violence.

16. Liberal Democracy
(Francis Fukuyama)
Democratic
Accountability
Rule of Law
Modern State

17.  The Modern State: Legitimate monopoly of force
over territory (Max Weber)
• Can the state enforce laws?
• Can it provide basic public services?
• Is it modern (i.e. impersonal and non-patrimonial)? Is there
a distinction between public and private property?
 The Rule of Law
• Are there checks and balances?
• Does the law apply to rulers?
• Are there constraints on state power?
 Democratic Accountability
• Are democratic procedures (e.g. elections) in place?

18. Images courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

19. Images courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)
Proves the enduring appeal and attraction – soft power – of liberal democracy.

20. “When people talk gauzily of life in postwar
America, they presumably are not referring
to the lives of women, African-Americans,
gays, lesbians, Catholics, Jews, Mormons,
Latinos, Asian-Americans or the disabled.”
–The New York Times (Dec. 19, 2013)

21.  GDP Growth
 Human Development
 Sustainability
• Unemployment
• Inequality
• Resource curse
 Happiness?
Painting by Norman Rockwell

22.  Life expectancy has
risen 50% since 1900
and is still rising.
 Those living on less
than $1 a day has
dropped to 14%, from
42% in 1981.
 Global inequality has
fallen (Milanovic).

23. Image courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

24. Images courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

25. Images courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

26. Image courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

27. Image courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

28. Image courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

29. Painting by Norman Rockwell

30. Image courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

31. Image courtesy Max Roser (ourworldindata.org)

32. Terrorism Victims in Western Europe
(source: Statista)

33. Elements of the liberal international order:
• Deterrence and alliances
• Interdependence, institutions, and ideals
• Changing norms
Empathy, self-control, morality, and reason
have overcome practical violence,
domination, revenge, sadism, and
ideology. (Steven Pinker)

34.  Global freedom,
security, and
prosperity has been
made possible by the
Western-led liberal
international order.
 But, the ‘Rise of the
Rest’ means that the
liberal international
order is no longer
(only) Western.
Painting by Norman Rockwell

35.  The liberal international order works: it has
helped the world become more free,
prosperous, secure, and integrated.
 The liberal international order is worth
preserving – on both normative and practical
grounds.
 The transatlantic partnership has been – and
remains - at the core of the liberal
international order, even though the West can
no longer claim sole ownership of it.

36.  Max Weber, Politik als Beruf
 Robert Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics
 Francis Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order
 Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies
 Raymond Aron, Democracy and Totalitarianism
 Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation
 Tony Judt, Postwar
 Mark Mazower, Governing the World
 Angus Deaton, The Great Escape
 Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature
 G. John Ikenberry, After Victory/Liberal Leviathan
 Max C. Roser, ourworldindata.org