Defending the Liberal International Order

Realists' accounts of the U.S.-led postwar order look skeptically on its liberal foundations or functions. While it did not emerge at a single order-building moment or from a single strategic vision, it evolved over the decades into the most formidable and dynamic political formation in world history. It established an array of commitments and restraints that offered a “third way” between two extremes: order based on anarchy and the balance of power, and order based on empire and domination.