America Vs the West ― Can the Liberal World Order Be Preserved?

"The rules-based international order is being challenged... not by the usual suspects, but by its main architect and guarantor, the US." —European Council President Donald Tusk, 8 June 2018

Under President Donald Trump, the United States has burned like a wildfire through the goodwill it accrued in 70 years of propagating its liberal political values. Can Western nations preserve the liberal world order against rising authoritarian powers without the United States, or with Washington working against them? In America vs the West, Kori Schake argues that the success of the liberal order is not preordained. It will have to be fought for, compromised for, and rejuvenated. Can it be done without American leadership? That will depend on the strengths of the major challengers—Russia and China—but above all on whether the West’s middle powers are prepared to band together.

Kori Schake is the Deputy Director-General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). She was a distinguished research fellow at the Hoover Institution and is the editor, with Jim Mattis, of the book Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military. She has served in various policy roles including at the White House for the National Security Council; at the Department of Defense for the Office of the Secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department for the Policy Planning Staff. During the 2008 presidential election, she was Senior Policy Advisor on the McCain-Palin campaign.