An inevitable self-destruction? : A qualitative study on how liberal thinkers explain the crisis of the liberal international order

Abstract: With the aim of contributing to the recent debate on the fate of the liberal international order, this thesis has examined how prominent advocates of the liberal international order explain its contemporary state of crisis. Taking a point of departure in John Mearsheimer’s critical argument of three essential flaws in the liberal order, I have expanded these flaws into three theoretical areas. These theoretical areas highlight fundamental components in the liberal international order that, according to Mearsheimer, endogenously undermine the liberal international order which will eventually lead to its demise. These theoretical areas are the expansion of the liberal order, resistance in liberal democracies and the threat of China. Analyzing the ideas of liberal advocates within these theoretical areas, I have found that they have offered strong arguments on why the liberal international order will not perish. Although the liberal advocates see a crisis of governance and legitimacy in the liberal order, they believe that the order’s beneficial and robustious architecture constrain states from abandoning the international institutions of the liberal international order. However, drawing on previous research, I have discussed the plausible possibility and consequences of an increasingly powerful China rising within the order. I have concluded that the liberal advocates have not satisfactorily explained this threat of China to the contemporary U.S-led liberal order.