The Erosion of “Liberal International Order” From Within

Abstract

This paper examines the ongoing crisis of the “liberal international order,” focusing on the identity crisis of its traditional leader, the United States, which has increasingly lacked the commitment and capacity to maintain it. The idea of American exceptionalism, namely that the United States is a unique, morally superior nation and thus has special responsibility in protecting the security and peace of the world, has guided U.S. foreign policy since the country’s earliest days. In its commitment to global “War on Terror” from the 2000s, however, the United States has fundamentally undermined the rules-based international order that it had contributed to establishing after the WWII so as to reflect its power, principles, and preferences. According to the “Costs of War” project conducted by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, the total cost of the 20 year “War on Terror” amounts to $8 trillion. It is also estimated that more than 7,000 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in the war, and the total death toll including civilian casualties amounts to around 900,000. These “costs” have significantly eroded U.S. credibility and image abroad. The 45^th President of the United States, Donald Trump’s foreign policy has developed out of the “America First” ideology, which fundamentally differs from former Presidents’ preference for the ideology of American exceptionalism. Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, which abrogates U.S. role and responsibility as a “benign hegemon,” has posed a fundamental challenge to the postwar “liberal international order.” Though Joe Biden vowed on the campaign trail to break from the paths taken by Trump, the Biden administration has not made substantial breaks. Saying it was time to end America’s longest war after two decades, Biden completed pulling the last American troops out of Afghanistan in 2021, which responded to the will of the majority of Americans, who had grown weary of two decades of war. Embracing the hegemonic role of the United States in the world, and being nostalgic for the heyday of the U.S.-led “liberal international order,” defenders of liberal internationalism have demanded and counseled Washington to restore a battered tradition, uphold economic and security commitments, and promote liberal values. However, it is important to question if the postwar U.S.-led international order has been truly liberal. “Liberal hegemon” arguments have been increasingly criticized as ahistorical as it has erased the memory of war, and violence, conducted by the United States. In order to envision a future international order, we need critical examination of the nature of the postwar international order, which has contained expansive militarism and endless war that is neither liberal nor harmonious, and reimagination toward inventing liberal internationalism ultimately worthy of its name.