A sweeping account of the rise and evolution of liberal
internationalism in the modern era
For 200 years, the grand project of liberal internationalism has been to
build a world order that is open, loosely rules-based, and oriented
toward progressive ideas. Today this project is in crisis, threatened
from the outside by illiberal challengers and from the inside by
nationalist-populist movements. This timely book offers the first full
account of liberal internationalism's long journey from its 19th-century
roots to today's fractured political moment.
Creating an international "space" for liberal democracy, preserving
rights and protections within and between countries, and balancing
conflicting values such as liberty and equality, openness and social
solidarity, and sovereignty and interdependence - these are the guiding
aims that have propelled liberal internationalism through the upheavals
of the past two centuries. G. John Ikenberry argues that in a 21st
century marked by rising economic and security interdependence, liberal
internationalism - reformed and reimagined - remains the most viable
project to protect liberal democracy.