Short Reviews
The False Promise of Liberal Order: Nostalgia, Delusion and the Rise of Trump
new titles by patrick porter; fareed Zakaria; Kathryn C. Lavelle; Kingsley edney, stanley rosen and Ying Zhu (eds.); Heonik Kwon; Lorenz M. Lüthi; gina Anne tam; Ankit panda; Bill Hayton; John person; Jennifer M. Miller; Andray Abrahamian; Jim Laurie; Christian C. Lentz.
The turbulent and deviant Donald Trump presidency is over. “America is back,” President-elect Joe Biden proclaimed after the confirmation of his victory in November’s US presidential election. In a world being battered by Covid-19, and in which self-help and nationalism prevails while the badly needed global leadership to weave international co-operation is missing, America is back — but back to where?
Although written before the election, this book offers solemn advice for the new US leadership in navigating a post-pandemic era beyond Trumpism. Patrick Porter, professor at the UK’S University of Birmingham, warns that as the notion of liberal order is misleading, so is the dream of its restoration. The US built the post-war international order by ruthless power-seeking and messianic zeal, a panoply of illiberal and coercive means. It imposed, stretched or ignored rules and built and bypassed institutions.
This book, in the tradition of classical realism, and against both isolationists and primacists who believe America and the world are best served through an enduring marriage of liberal principles and American primacy, suggests, contrary to liberal order claims, that Machiavellian insights prevail — “prudent retreat for successful rebalancing.” The US should give up the pursuit of global dominance, cease trying to expand democratic capitalism and regime change abroad. Washington should focus on three, interlinked, grand strategic steps: contain a rising China, divide China and Russia, and reduce its footprint in the Middle East.