Liberal hegemony, international order, and US foreign policy: A reconsideration
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118791961 |
| Subject Matter | Breakthrough Commentaries |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118791961
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2019, Vol. 21(1) 47 –54
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148118791961
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Liberal hegemony,
international order, and
US foreign policy: A
reconsideration
Michael Mastanduno
Keywords
American hegemony, China’s rise, G. John Ikenberry, liberal order, Robert Gilpin
In the preface to War and Change, Robert Gilpin (1981: xiii) observed that the basic
dilemma of social science is ‘whether to explain trivial matters with exactitude or treat
significant matters with imprecision’. John Ikenberry decisively takes the second
approach. After Victory is a sweeping, monumental contribution that addresses a core
question in international relations (IR): how do states establish and maintain international
order after a great conflict? Thought leaders in international politics, including E.H. Carr,
Hedley Bull, and Gilpin, have long struggled with the problem of international order.
Ikenberry builds on that tradition and offers a novel argument that is illuminating theo-
retically and empirically. He develops the idea that is now called liberal hegemony, con-
trasts it with imperial and balancing forms of order, and explains successive postwar
settlements across the centuries, including the striking continuity in the American-centred
international order during and after the Cold War.
No short commentary can do justice to the rich set of ideas and arguments that After
Victory advances. This reflection considers four themes: the strategic behaviour of hegem-
onic states, the distinctive character of the postwar liberal order, the implications of
China’s rise for liberal hegemony, and whether liberal hegemony is self-reinforcing or
self-defeating. The conclusion highlights the enduring contributions of the book notwith-
standing the ‘imprecision’ of some of its arguments.
Strategic restraint: More prescription than prediction
A central argument in After Victory is that dominant states create and maintain durable
orders by resisting the temptation to exercise power. The argument for strategic restraint
is counterintuitive, especially for realist theory, which holds that the greater the
Department of Government, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH USA
Corresponding author:
Michael Mastanduno, Department of Government, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 USA.
Email: michael.mastanduno@dartmouth.edu
791961BPI0010.1177/1369148118791961The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsMastanduno
research-article2018
Breakthrough Commentary
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