Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-hqlzj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-05T08:46:15.070Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contestations of the Liberal International Order: From Liberal Multilateralism to Postnational Liberalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2021

Tanja A. Börzel Open the ORCID record for Tanja A. Börzel [Opens in a new window]  and
Michael Zürn Open the ORCID record for Michael Zürn [Opens in a new window]
Get access

Abstract

The 1990s saw a systemic shift from the liberal post–World War II international order of liberal multilateralism (LIO I) to a post–Cold War international order of postnational liberalism (LIO II). LIO II has not been only rule-based but has openly pursued a liberal social purpose with a significant amount of authority beyond the nation-state. While postnational liberal institutions helped increase overall well-being globally, they were criticized for using double standards and institutionalizing state inequality. We argue that these institutional features of the postnational LIO II led to legitimation problems, which explain both the current wave of contestations and the strategies chosen by different contestants. We develop our argument first by mapping the growing liberal intrusiveness of international institutions. Second, we demonstrate the increased level and variety of contestations in international security and international refugee law. We show that increased liberal intrusiveness has led to a variety of contestation strategies, the choice of which is affected by the preference of a contestant regarding postnational liberalism and its power within the contested institution.

Keywords

Liberal international orderliberal multilateralismpostnational liberalismcontestationUnited Nations Security CouncilResponsibility to ProtectInternational Criminal CourtEuropean UnionInternational Refugee LawEuropean migration crisis

Information

Type
Internal Challenges to the Liberal International Order: Political
Information
International Organization , Volume 75 , Special Issue 2: Challenges to the Liberal International Order: International Organization at 75 , Spring 2021 , pp. 282 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Acharya, Amitav. 2016. Why Govern? Rethinking Demand and Progress in Global Governance. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adler-Nissen, Rebecca, and Zarakol, Ayşe. 2020. Struggles for Recognition: The Liberal International Order and the Merger of Its Discontents. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000454>.Google Scholar
Alter, Karen J., and Raustiala, Kal. 2018. The Rise of International Regime Complexity. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14:329–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellamy, Alex J. 2005. Responsibility to Protect or Trojan Horse? The Crisis in Darfur and Humanitarian Intervention after Iraq. Ethics and International Affairs 19 (2):31–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börzel, Tanja A. 2013. Comparative Regionalism: European Integration and Beyond. In Handbook of International Relations, edited by Carlsnaes, Walter, Risse, Thomas, and Simmons, Beth A., 503–30. Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börzel, Tanja A. 2020. Contesting the EU Refugee Regime. SCRIPTS Working Paper No. 5. Berlin: Cluster of Excellence 2055, Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS).Google Scholar
Börzel, Tanja A., and Risse, Thomas. 2018. From the Euro to the Schengen Crisis: European Integration Theories, Politicization, and Identity Politics. Journal of European Public Policy 25 (1):83–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börzel, Tanja A., and Zürn, Michael. 2020. Contestations of the Liberal Script. SCRIPTS Working Paper No. 1. Berlin: Cluster of Excellence 2055, Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS).Google Scholar
Brands, Hal, and Peter, Feaver. 2017. Was the Rise of ISIS Inevitable? Survival 59 (3):7–54.Google Scholar
Búzás, Zoltán. 2021. Racism and Antiracism in the Liberal International Order. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000521>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daase, Christopher, and Deitelhoff, Nicole. 2019. Opposition and Dissidence: Two Modes of Resistance Against International Rule. Journal of International Political Theory 15 (1):11–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deitelhoff, Nicole. 2009. The Discursive Process of Legalization: Charting Islands of Persuasion in the ICC Case. International Organization 63 (1):33–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilde, De, Pieter, Ruud Koopmans, and Merkel, Wolfgang. 2019. The Struggle over Borders: Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilpin, Robert. 1987. The Political Economy of International Relations. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gissel, Line E. 2018. A Different Kind of Court: Africa's Support for the International Criminal Court, 1993–2003. European Journal of International Relations 29 (3):725–48.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Judith and Gulotty, Robert 2021. America and the Trade Regime: What Went Wrong? International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081832000065X>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ikenberry, G. John. 2011. Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jetschke, Anja, and Abb, Pascal. 2019. The Devil Is in the Detail: The Positions of the BRICS Countries Towards UN Security Council Reform and the Responsibility to Protect. In Contested World Orders: Rising Powers, Non-governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation State, edited by Stephen, Matthew D. and Zürn, Michael, 163–98. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lake, David A., Martin, Lisa L. and Risse, Thomas 2021. Challenges to the Liberal Order: Reflections on International Organization. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000636>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansfield, Edward and Rudra, Nita 2021. Embedded Liberalism in the Digital Era. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000569>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Ian. 2007. Social States: China in International Institutions, 1980–2000. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret E., and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kupchan, Charles A. 2012. No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest and the Coming Global Turn. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David. 2009. Hierarchy in International Relations. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mendelsohn, Barak. 2015. The Jihadi Threat to International Order. Washington Post, 15 May. Available at <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/05/15/the-jihadi-threat-to-international-order/>..>Google Scholar
Modelski, George. 1987. Long Cycles in World Politics. Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morozov, Viatcheslav. 2015. Russia's Postcolonial Identity: A Subaltern Empire in a Eurocentric World. Palgrave.Google Scholar
Pevehouse, Jon, Nordstrom, Timothy, and Warnke, Kevin. 2007. Intergovernmental Organizations, 1815–2000: A New Correlates of War Data Set (Version 2.1), edited by Harvard Dataverse.Google Scholar
Phillips, Andrew, and Reus-Smit, Christian. 2019. Culture and Order in World Politics. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse, Thomas, Ropp, Stephen C., and Sikkink, Kathryn, eds. 1999. The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 1983. International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Post-war Economic Order. In International Regimes, edited by Krasner, Stephen D., 195–232. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Slaughter, Ann-Marie. 2005. Security, Solidarity, and Sovereignty: The Grand Themes of UN Reform. American Journal of International Law 99 (3):619–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephen, Matthew, and Zürn, Michael. 2019. Contested World Orders: Rising Powers, Non-governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation-State. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallberg, Jonas, and Zürn, Michael. 2019. The Legitimacy and Legitimation of International Organizations: Introduction and Framework. Review of International Organizations 2019 (14):581–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tourinho, Marcos. 2021. The Co-Constitution of Order. International Organization 75 (2). <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000466>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, Robert Hunter. 2003. What Strategies Are Viable for Developing Countries Today? The World Trade Organization and the Shrinking of “Development Space.” Review of International Political Economy 10 (4):621–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walgrave, Stefaan, and Rucht, Dieter. 2010. The World Says No to War: Demonstrations Against the War on Iraq. University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zürn, Michael. 2018. A Theory of Global Governance: Authority, Legitimation and Contestation. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Börzel and Zürn Dataset

Dataset https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/WEYEUM
Link