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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.
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.
- GenresPolitics
192 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 6, 2019
Mostly disappointed with this "book". I was hoping for a mostly high-level look at the liberal world order, but it was mostly all over the place. A few parts were interesting, but it was very hard to follow.
June 16, 2024
Policymakers worldwide face variants of the same question: what to do as America's influence in the world declines, and China's grows? Some challenge the premise ("America is fine"), others the implication ("China will falter"), but they all offer similar narratives and suggestions. Kori Schake's America vs the West offers a plausible outcome, should we fail to respond: “it will be an international order in which we look back with longing for the aggravations we now have in cultivating cooperation and managing competition among strong states." Better the devil you know, Schake argues, than the devil you wait for.
The West has failed to explain the costs and benefits of the American-led international order to the voting public, and this order is now being undermined: from within by leaders like Trump, who are at best indifferent and at worst hostile to the structures and ideals traditionally espoused by Western leaders, and from without by authoritarian states, led by Russia and China. US allies are nervous, and cannot afford to wait out a possible second Trump administration to try and turn back the clock: their world is changing, and they must change with it.
What might the world look like, should these trends continue? The EU, Schake argues, talks a big game about filling America's boots but does not measure up: do South Koreans, for example, really believe that in the absence of a willing and able United States, Europe would step in to defend it? The EU would need to deepen its integration and assume much more risk, an argument as compelling as it is unlikely -- Brexit, borne of similar sentiments to those behind Trump's election, has cost the EU a nuclear power and member of the P5 UN Security Council. The American-led international probably doesn't depend on the UK's continued membership of the EU, but the EU's credibility as a viable replacement suffers without it.
Schake writes well, but this could have been almost any other book on the subject of America’s decline and what it means for the status quo, and I might not have known the difference. Schake also misses an opportunity to engage with the subtext of the question her book poses, which might be: how can other liberal democracies navigate a risen China, while America is either unwilling or unable to lead them? This oversight deserves to be viewed charitably, however – America vs the West makes a difficult policy issue accessible to all, and like Xi Jinping: The Backlash, trades originality for accessibility.
Schake's work has inspired me to re-attempt Thomas Wright’s All Measures Short of War and also to explore the work of Azar Gat. America vs the West is a brief and worthwhile reminder that a failure to manage whatever comes next will be expensive, and she captures this perfectly in her conclusion: "It will be an international order where the investments of the men who fought World War II and feared another such butcher's bill are squandered and very costly to regain.”
The West has failed to explain the costs and benefits of the American-led international order to the voting public, and this order is now being undermined: from within by leaders like Trump, who are at best indifferent and at worst hostile to the structures and ideals traditionally espoused by Western leaders, and from without by authoritarian states, led by Russia and China. US allies are nervous, and cannot afford to wait out a possible second Trump administration to try and turn back the clock: their world is changing, and they must change with it.
What might the world look like, should these trends continue? The EU, Schake argues, talks a big game about filling America's boots but does not measure up: do South Koreans, for example, really believe that in the absence of a willing and able United States, Europe would step in to defend it? The EU would need to deepen its integration and assume much more risk, an argument as compelling as it is unlikely -- Brexit, borne of similar sentiments to those behind Trump's election, has cost the EU a nuclear power and member of the P5 UN Security Council. The American-led international probably doesn't depend on the UK's continued membership of the EU, but the EU's credibility as a viable replacement suffers without it.
Schake writes well, but this could have been almost any other book on the subject of America’s decline and what it means for the status quo, and I might not have known the difference. Schake also misses an opportunity to engage with the subtext of the question her book poses, which might be: how can other liberal democracies navigate a risen China, while America is either unwilling or unable to lead them? This oversight deserves to be viewed charitably, however – America vs the West makes a difficult policy issue accessible to all, and like Xi Jinping: The Backlash, trades originality for accessibility.
Schake's work has inspired me to re-attempt Thomas Wright’s All Measures Short of War and also to explore the work of Azar Gat. America vs the West is a brief and worthwhile reminder that a failure to manage whatever comes next will be expensive, and she captures this perfectly in her conclusion: "It will be an international order where the investments of the men who fought World War II and feared another such butcher's bill are squandered and very costly to regain.”
December 30, 2018
A sobering but not hopeless look at the future of the liberal international order. Schake identifies two key stressors that could threaten the order: the rise of China, and Trump's antagonism toward the order. (Despite Russia's activities over the past several years, Schake doesn't rate it as a significant long-term threat.) Additionally, uncertainty about Europe's way forward in this plays a role.
Some of my optimism for the future is restored, but a lot of it depends on the 2020 election outcome.
Some of my optimism for the future is restored, but a lot of it depends on the 2020 election outcome.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews