Preface and Acknowledgments

Abstract

Extract War has given Western democracies a renewed sense of unity and purpose. In response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have imposed tough economic sanctions on Moscow, sent weapons and aid to Kyiv, ratcheted up military spending, strengthened their security ties, and thrown open their doors to millions of Ukrainian refugees. The speed, breadth, and vigor of the West’s response have raised hopes that Putin’s brutal war marks a turning point for a liberal international order whose rules and norms have been badly battered and weakened by the forces of autocracy and nationalism. Whether the liberal order gains a new lease on life will depend on more than Western democracies’ resolve in the current international crisis, however. The liberal order’s future will be determined by the push and pull of domestic politics as well as by geopolitics. Geopolitics and Democracy is about how international and domestic politics have shaped and reshaped the liberal world order from its postwar origins through the height of the Cold War to the present era. For decades, the liberal order’s political foundations were sturdy and strong. Geopolitics and social democracy were self-reinforcing, the one buttressing and fortifying the other. Today, the liberal order’s foundations are fractured, riven by anti-globalist and populist insurgencies and democratic backsliding. We explain how this happened and consider what might be done to restore domestic support for the liberal order. In telling this story, we draw on ideas and concepts that will be familiar to scholars of international relations, comparative politics, and political economy, combining and testing them in new ways.