On world order and opportunities not to be wasted. Issue 2 (23rd February 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Royer, Christof
• Is Part Of: Critical review of international social and political philosophy. Volume 26:Issue 2(2023)
• Page Start: 301
• Page End: 317
• Publication Date: 2023-02-23
• Subjects: Liberal world order -- crisis -- human diversity -- tragedy -- opportunities not to be missed; Political science -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Policy sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 320.01
• DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2020.1762153
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-8230

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This essay engages critically with Adrian Pabst's 'Liberal World Order and Its Critics', Christian Reus-Smit's 'On Cultural Diversity', and Hal Brands' and Charles Edel's 'The Lessons of Tragedy'. What holds these three (very different) books together is that they revolve around the theme of 'the crisis of liberal world order'. In this essay, I do not wish to dispute the claim that the liberal world order is in crisis – indeed, I accept this common starting-off point of the four authors as a fact. What distinguishes my take on the 'crisis of liberal world' order from the books under review, however, is that I develop an alternative angle on the very idea of 'crisis': By understanding crisis as an incitement to judgement, deliberation and, ultimately, political action, I excavate the constructive potential of crisis; and, through the critical engagement with the three books under review, I seek to lay bare the intimate bond that connects 'crisis', 'human diversity', and 'tragedy', and to revive the constructive potential of these themes as 'opportunities not to be wasted'.