Chaos Reconsidered: The Liberal Order and the Future of International Politics

This lively volume brings together 45 historians and international relations theorists to assess the impact of the Trump presidency on the U.S.-led liberal international order. In a sharp break with the past, Donald Trump came to office seemingly committed to tearing down the U.S. postwar system, withdrawing from multilateral agreements and the Iran nuclear deal, attempting to withdraw from the World Health Organization, and dismissing NATO and other alliances as outdated. The essayists in this volume are generally critical of Trump’s “America first” foreign policy but offer a great diversity of views on its long-term consequences. Some writers are struck by the resilience of U.S. alliances and partnerships, whereas others see abiding damage to the country’s credibility as a global leader. Many of the chapters argue that the “Trump effect” is as much a consequence as a cause of global disorder. The international relations scholar Emma Ashford sees Trump’s moves as part of a longer shift in the orientation of the U.S. foreign policy establishment from the liberal internationalism of the 1990s to a contemporary fixation on great-power rivalry. Other authors argue that, ultimately, Trump’s policies were unsuccessful in achieving their proclaimed objectives and that a majority of Americans still support the country’s historical role as a global liberal leader. But the historian Jeremy Adelman offers a trenchant warning: Trump may have failed, but deep forces are at work in the world that will prevent the United States from treating the disruption of his presidency as a mere aberration.