After the Soviet Union collapsed, the US-anchored international system—the “liberal international order”—had no serious competitors. The Warsaw Pact was gone, and so was the Soviet economic bloc. For the first time since the liberal international order’s creation, its leaders aspired to make the system truly global. No one seriously sought to challenge this international system; almost everyone sought to join it.
Three decades later, this international liberal order is breaking down. Some say it is already dead.
The rise of autocratic Russia and China has challenged this global order. But China and Russia are not the only threats to the international system today. Over the past three decades, changes within the liberal democratic world have weakened the appeal of this system, including for many Americans. President Trump has catalyzed that sentiment to now seriously challenge, if not destroy, the future of this system.
Click here to continue reading this free excerpt from my new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder.
Isolationism was dangerous in the 1920’s and 1930’s and even more dangerous in the world we live in now!