Is the International Liberal Order Evolving or Exposing Itself? |
Debate is intensifying over whether the international order is evolving or collapsing. The politics of the Trump administration have fuelled this discussion. But has politics itself really changed, or only the language surrounding it? As practices once kept behind the scenes move into the open, the rhetorical games that once sustained the system are losing their force. Many argue that the so-called rules-based international order is collapsing in the face of renewed power politics. However, a simple triumph of power politics is not necessarily the case. U.S. efforts to enforce unipolarity on the basis of a neocolonial logic may ultimately accelerate the emergence of multipolar arrangements at regional and transregional levels – unless multilateral institutions, originally built in the aftermath of the World Wars and shaped by power asymmetries, are revised and reinforced to meet the necessities of today’s global balance. In a multipolar trajectory, more practice-oriented forms of politics based on quasi win-win arrangements among states may emerge, though still conditioned by existing power balances. This, of course, represents the more optimistic scenario.
The limits and shortcomings of unilateral interventions driven by pure self-interest can be foreseen, and the U.S. may be aware of this. The U.S. has recently withdrawn from several international agencies and scaled back funding for institutions contributing to international development, including its own soft power instrument, USAID, the world’s largest foreign aid agency. Despite these cutbacks, Congress tempered President Trump’s decisions on foreign assistance by maintaining funding for key programs, including U.S. dues to the UN.
A related precedent emerges from the Republican Reagan administration, which withdrew the U.S. from the UN agency UNESCO due to alleged anti-American bias, although it later resumed payment of its dues. The U.S. again moved to withdraw in 2017 and 2025 under the two Trump administrations, citing alleged anti-Israel bias. UN resolutions supporting Palestinian rights have played a significant role in shaping such decisions both then and today, as has the pending International Court of Justice (ICJ) case concerning Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Such reactions reflect the tensions that arise when a singular power loses, or perceives a loss of, control within international institutions.
While the Trump administration’s decisions have prompted analysts to write more about the collapse or future of an international system based........