Transnational Elite Knowledge Networks: Managing American Hegemony in Turbulent Times

Abstract

The liberal international order’s own theory is as much in crisis as the institutional system whose virtues it champions. This is due first to theoretical shortcomings per se, and due second to its misunderstanding or neglect of the role of elite knowledge networks and of socialization in the development and perpetuation of American liberal hegemony. This article, which adds to recent interest in the dynamics of hegemonic-order building and maintenance, argues that a neo–Gramscian-Kautskyian theoretical synthesis better explains the character and methods of the liberal international order. The article considers two cases through which to compare liberal-internationalist and Gramscian-Kautskyian claims: the 1970s challenge of third-world states under the banner of a new international economic order (NIEO) and the managed opening of China, and the Trumpian challenge to the liberal international order. On that basis, the article concludes that the hegemonic liberal international order and its core states and elite networks are engaged in a titanic struggle against forces unleashed by a combination of its own successes, inadequacies, and exclusions. Gramscian-Kautskyian theory, using the transnationally extended “elite knowledge network” concept, also suggests that, despite turbulence, the hegemonic liberal international order has significant powers of adaptation, co-optation, and resistance, and is likely to remain resilient, if turbulent and not unchanged, for the foreseeable future.