The shock of Donald Trump's election caused many observers to ask whether the liberal international order-the system of institutions and norms established after World War II-was coming to an end. The victory of Joe Biden, a committed institutionalist, suggested that the liberal order would endure. Even so, important questions remained: Was Trump an aberration? Is Biden struggling in vain against irreparable changes in international politics? What does the future hold for the international order?
The essays in Chaos Reconsidered answer those questions. Leading scholars assess the domestic and global effects of the Trump and Biden presidencies. The historians put the Trump years and Biden's victory in historical context. Regional specialists evaluate U.S. diplomacy in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Others foreground topics such as global right-wing populism, the COVID-19 pandemic, racial inequality, and environmental degradation. International relations theorists reconsider the nature of international politics, pointing to deficiencies in traditional IR methods for explaining world events and Trump's presidency in particular. Together, these experts provide a comprehensive analysis of the state of U.S. alliances and partnerships, the durability of the liberal international order, the standing and reputation of the United States as a global leader, the implications of China's assertiveness and Russia's aggression, and the prospects for the Biden administration and its successors.
Contributions by:
Jeremy Adelman
Edited by:
Robert Jervis,
Stacie Goddard,
Diane N. Labrosse,
Joshua Rovner
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780231205993
ISBN 10: 0231205996
Pages: 544
Publication Date: 04 July 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction, by Robert Jervis, Diane N. Labrosse, Stacie E. Goddard, and Joshua Rovner Part I. Trump and International Relations Theory 1. The Trump Experiment: An Assessment, by Robert Jervis 2. Trump Huffed and Puffed, and Liberal International Relations Theory Blew Down, by Michael N. Barnett 3. America First? The Erosion of American Status Under Trump, by Michelle Murray 4. Has Trump Changed How We Think About American Security?, by Deborah Avant 5. Trump’s Realism, by Randall Schweller Part II. America First 6. When Donald Met Washington: The Genesis of “Great-Power Competition”, by Emma Ashford 7. What Trump’s Nationalism Ended Up Looking Like, by Thomas W. Zeiler 8. Trump’s Presidency as History, by Ryan Irwin 9. Globalism and U.S. Foreign Relations After Trump, by Frank Ninkovich 10. The Derangements of Sovereignty: Trumpism and the Dilemmas of Interdependence, by Samuel Zipp 11. The Trump Presidency in Historical Perspective, by John A. Thompson Part III. American Institutions and Alliances After Trump 12. Presidents, Precedents, and the Laws of War, by Matthew Evangelista 13. Trump to the Intelligence Community: You’re Fired, by Richard Immerman 14. The Trump Administration and Economic Sanctions, by Nicholas Mulder 15. Donald Trump and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Deal, by Susan Colbourn 16. Trump’s Transactional Follies: The Consequences of Treating the Arms Trade Like a Business, by Jennifer Spindel Part IV. Trump Abroad 17. Trump and Russia: Less Than Meets the Eye, by Angela Stent 18. Trump and U.S.-China Strategic Competition as the “New” Normal, by Jonathan DiCicco 19. Engage? Trump and the Asia-Pacific, by Dayna Barnes 20. Riding the Rollercoaster: India and the Trump Years, by Tanvi Madan 21. Swaggering Home: Trump, Grenell, and Pompeo in Conflict with Germany, by William Gray 22. Death-Grip Handshakes and Flattery Diplomacy: The Macron-Trump Connection and Its Larger Implications for Alliance Politics, by Kathryn Statler 23. “Mr. Brexit”: Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s Departure from the European Union, by Lindsay Aqui 24. The Trump Administration and the Middle East: Not Much Change, Not Much Success, by F. Gregory Gause III 25. Fences Make Bad Hombres: Trump and Latin America, by Christy Thornton Part V. The Expanding Meaning of International Security: Human Rights, Racial Justice, and COVID-19 26. “Shithole Countries”: Was Trump’s Foreign Policy Racist?, by William I. Hitchcock 27. Rethinking Vulnerability: Structural Inequality as National Insecurity, by Jason Ludwig and Rebecca Slayton 28. Lifting the Veil on Racial Capitalism: American Foreign Policy Before and After Trump, by Nivi Manchanda 29. Racialized Threats and Security Rationales in U.S. Immigration Policies, by Audie Klotz 30. The Trump Presidency, the Question of Palestine, and Biden’s Business as Usual, by A. Dirk Moses and Victor Kattan 31. The Trump Administration’s Insidious Approach to Human Rights, by Sarah B. Snyder Part VI. Is Liberal Internationalism Still Alive? 32. Trump’s Foreign Policy Legacy, by Joshua Busby and Jonathan Monten 33. “America First” Meets Liberal Internationalism, by Stephen Chaudoin, Helen V. Milner, and Dustin Tingley 34. Liberal Internationalism and Partisan Conflict in the Post-Trump United States, by George N. Georgarakis and Robert Y. Shapiro Part VII. Looking Forward: The Prospects for Joe Biden’s Presidency 35. The Biden Administration and Russia: Deeper Into a U.S.-Russia Cold War, by Robert Legvold 36. Joe Biden, American Democracy, and the China Challenge, by James Goldgeier 37. Transatlantic Relations After Trump: Mutual Perceptions and Strategy in Historical Perspective, by Alessandro Brogi 38. One Eye on the Rearview Mirror: The Middle East from Trump to Biden, by James Stocker 39. Reclaiming America and Its Place in the World, by Elizabeth Economy Part VIII. Coda 40. World History, the American President, and the Gibbon Paradox, by Jeremy Adelman 41. Trump’s Limited Legacy, by Lawrence Freedman 42. American Constraints: Trump’s “Legacy” or Inexorable History, by Charles S. Maier 43. Making Trump History, by Martin Conway List of Contributors Index
Robert Jervis (1940–2021) was the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University. Diane N. Labrosse is the managing editor of H-Diplo and the senior managing editor of the Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum. Stacie Goddard is the Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science and faculty director of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College. Joshua Rovner is an associate professor in the School of International Service at American University. Jervis, Labrosse, and Rovner coedited, with Francis J. Gavin, Chaos in the Liberal Order: The Trump Presidency and International Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Columbia, 2018).
Reviews for Chaos Reconsidered: The Liberal Order and the Future of International Politics
Chaos Reconsidered is a stellar collection of essays examining the Trump years from a dizzying array of angles. Collecting them together will give scholars, students, and policymakers much to chew on, just as Robert Jervis intended. -- Elizabeth N. Saunders, Georgetown School of Foreign Service With the liberal world order under increasing strain, the highly readable, provocative, and original essays in this book offer a wealth of expertise and deep-seated knowledge on the impact of changes made by the Trump administration as well as their legacy. A must-read for policymakers and students. -- Deborah Welch Larson, University of California, Los Angeles This collection of essays explores the longevity, durability, and contradictions of the institutions and practices put in place by the United States in the wake of World War II. Readers are in for a treat, ranging from a lucid analysis by the late Robert Jervis of the seriousness of the challenges to Michael N. Barnett’s damning analysis of the hypocrisies of the ‘liberal’ world order to Deborah Avant’s compelling argument about the need to consider the inherent tensions between the illiberal at home and the promotion of a liberal world order abroad. The collection makes an exceptionally strong theoretical contribution to the multiple effects of race on the liberal world order. A must-read for anyone interested in the evolving global system. -- Janice Gross Stein, University of Toronto A fascinating window on how political scientists and historians who study international politics grappled with the implications of the Trump presidency for their subject. Rich with insights worthy of consideration in their own right, Chaos Reconsidered will stand as a primary source on how the field and reacted to a seminal event occurring at a crucial stage of intellectual development. -- William C. Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor, Dartmouth College
