A World Safe for Democracy: Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order

by G. John Ikenberry

Overview

A sweeping account of the rise and evolution of liberal internationalism in the modern era, selected as a Best Book of 2021 by Foreign Affairs
 
“A thoughtful and profound defence of liberal internationalism—both as a political philosophy and as a guide to future actions.”—Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
 
“The crowning achievement of [Ikenberry’s] decades-long work explaining and defending the liberal international order.”—Michael Hirsch, Foreign Policy
 
For two hundred 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 nineteenth-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 twenty-first century marked by rising economic and security interdependence, liberal internationalism—reformed and reimagined—remains the most viable project to protect liberal democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300230987
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	09/22/2020
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	719,605
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

G. John Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, as well as a Global Scholar at Kyung Hee University, South Korea. His books include Liberal Leviathan and After Victory.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

1 Cracks in the Liberal World Order 1

2 Liberal Democracy and International Relations 26

3 The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Internationalism 66

4 Wilsonian Internationalism 100

5 Rooseveltian Internationalism 141

6 The Rise of Liberal Hegemony 177

7 Liberalism and Empire 212

8 The Crisis of the Post-Cold War Liberal Order 255

9 Mastering Modernity 286

Notes 313

Index 395

Editorial Reviews

"Ikenberry’s masterly study reveals liberal internationalism not as utopianism but as a complex tradition concerned with enabling liberal democracies to navigate the possibilities and pathologies of modernity. A subtle yet powerful defense of liberal internationalism’s relevance in today’s global crisis and upheaval."—Christian Reus-Smit, University of Queensland

Christian Reus-Smit

“John Ikenberry once more shows why he remains the most intelligent and most articulate defender of a world built over two centuries by Britain and the United States. Yet another tour de force by one of the most important voices in international relations today.”—Michael Cox, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics

Michael Cox

"A World Safe for Democracy is a wide-ranging and masterly genealogy of liberal internationalism. While outlining the serious crises liberal internationalism faces today, Ikenberry presents an eloquent plea for its value and a thoughtful prescription for its survival."—Michael Doyle, Columbia University
 

Michael Doyle

"At a time when the liberal internationalist project is under sustained attack, a rigorous defense of it by a leading scholar is greatly to be welcomed. With deep research and careful analysis, John Ikenberry shows how the liberal world has worked in the past and can be made to work in the current era."—Robert Jervis, author of How Statesmen Think
 

Robert Jervis

"John Ikenberry is one of the leading scholarly advocates of the liberal international order. Combining history, international relations, and political theory, A World Safe for Democracy is an erudite and passionate restatement of the case for liberal values and institutions in a world where they are under sustained attack. It will be a landmark book on the subject."—Duncan Bell, author of Reordering the World: Essays on Liberalism and Empire

Duncan Bell

"John Ikenberry is the preeminent theorist of liberal internationalism in the world. A World Safe for Democracy is the product of decades of study, including thoughtful and honest debates with realist and revisionist critiques of the liberal international order. The book couldn't be more timely. . . . A must-read."—Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America
 

Anne-Marie Slaughter

“A very important book showing the resilience of the quest for a world order that is open, rules-based, and oriented toward progressive ideas.”—Joseph S. Nye Jr., author of Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump 

Joseph S. Nye

"The foremost proponent of liberalism amongst current international relations scholars has delivered a timely and penetrating critical assessment of liberalism’s origins, development, contradictions, and prospects. This book is a thoughtful and valuable counterweight to the shallow and seductive blandishments of both populists and authoritarians."—Barry Buzan, London School of Economics and Political Science
 

Barry Buzan

A splendid book . . . His most impressive work to date.”—Stewart M. Patrick, Foreign Affairs (from World Politics Review)

"One of [the Biden team's] chief manifestos for change, as some of the incoming Bidenites have already privately conceded, will be G. John Ikenberry’s new book, A World Safe for Democracy . . . the crowning achievement of the Princeton University’s scholar’s decadeslong work explaining and defending the liberal international order. . . . According to a senior member of the incoming Biden team, . . . the new administration is paying a great deal of attention to Ikenberry’s ideas."—Michael Hirsh, Foreign Policy

Shortlisted for the 2021 Arthur Ross Book Award, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations

“John Ikenberry once more shows why he remains the most intelligent and most articulate defender of a world built over two centuries by Britain and the United States. Yet another tour de force by one of the most important voices in international relations today.”—Michael Cox, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics

"The foremost proponent of liberalism amongst current international relations scholars has delivered a timely and penetrating critical assessment of liberalism’s origins, development, contradictions, and prospects. This book is a thoughtful and valuable counterweight to the shallow and seductive blandishments of both populists and authoritarians."—Barry Buzan, London School of Economics and Political Science  

"A World Safe for Democracy is a wide-ranging and masterly genealogy of liberal internationalism. While outlining the serious crises liberal internationalism faces today, Ikenberry presents an eloquent plea for its value and a thoughtful prescription for its survival."—Michael Doyle, Columbia University

"John Ikenberry is the preeminent theorist of liberal internationalism in the world. A World Safe for Democracy is the product of decades of study, including thoughtful and honest debates with realist and revisionist critiques of the liberal international order. The book couldn't be more timely. . . . A must-read."—Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America

"At a time when the liberal internationalist project is under sustained attack, a rigorous defense of it by a leading scholar is greatly to be welcomed. With deep research and careful analysis, John Ikenberry shows how the liberal world has worked in the past and can be made to work in the current era."—Robert Jervis, author of How Statesmen Think

From the Publisher