Reflections on After Victory
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148118791402 |
| Author | G. John Ikenberry |
| Subject Matter | Breakthrough International Relations |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118791402
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2019, Vol. 21(1) 5 –19
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148118791402
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Reflections on After Victory
G. John Ikenberry
Abstract
After Victory appeared in the spring of 2001, in what now seems like a different era. The book
looks at the great postwar moments – 1815, 1919, 1945, and the end of the Cold War – when
the ‘old order’ is swept away and newly powerful states shape a ‘new order’. In this essay, I offer
reflections on After Victory’s arguments about the character and evolution of international order
in the modern era, American hegemonic order in the 20th century, and the logic of institutions
and strategic restraint. I explore the theoretical debates that it engaged and triggered. The essay
looks at how the book’s arguments stand up to the face of more recent developments – the
Bush administration’s Iraq War, the rise of China, the American ‘empire debate’, and the Trump
administration’s radical assault on the post-1945 liberal international order.
Keywords
hegemony, institutions, liberal internationalism, power transition, strategic restraint, theories of
order
Introduction
After Victory was published in the spring of 2001, during what now seems like a different
era. The idea for the book emerged in the first years after the end of the Cold War. This
‘postwar moment’ seemed to share characteristics with great postwar junctures of the
past, including 1815, 1919, and 1945. In After Victory, I wanted to look both backward
and forward, to probe these moments when the ‘old order’ was swept away and newly
powerful states shaped a ‘new order’. These power transitions find states – the victors and
the vanquished – standing on the rubble of war, negotiating the basic (new) rules and
principles of world politics. Major wars are like massive earthquakes that open up gaping
cracks, exposing deep substructures of power and interests. To study postwar moments is
to put on the boots of a geopolitical archeologist and climb down into newly exposed lay-
ers of geopolitical strata.
The book was intended as an intervention into theory and debate about international
order. The study of the history and theory of international order is scattered across the
scholarly landscape. Work in this area focuses on the core underlying ’problem’ of order
(see Bull, 2012; Gilpin, 1981; Hurrell, 2007; Lake, 2009). How is order created and main-
tained in a world of sovereign states? Who commands and who benefits? What are the
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA and Global Eminence Scholar, Kyung Hee University (South Korea).
Corresponding author:
G. John Ikenberry, Princeton University, 116 Bendheim Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Email: gji3@princeton.edu
791402BPI0010.1177/1369148118791402The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsIkenberry
research-article2018
Breakthrough International Relations
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