The Liberal Order and the Modern Project

A persistent struggle within liberal thought is how to recognise cultural particularity within an ethical system in which toleration does not become indifference. The liberal internationalism espoused by leading US-based authors assumes a single logic of modernity, in which adherence to liberal rules and institutions is both necessary and inevitable. The article finds an echo of this view in earlier English School work on the expansion of international society, and subsequently teases out some lessons from recent revisionist accounts of how international society and its institutions were shaped by the multiplicity of their interactions. Historical and cultural encounters in international society show that liberal internationalists are mistaken in their belief that there is only one pathway to modernity and that re-rising powers, such as India, Russia and China will sustain the liberal order after American hegemonic decline.