International relations

The Liberal World Order - in Crisis

Module code: 500IR
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Lecture
Assessment modes: Essay

This module provides you with the opportunity to identify and assess the nature of the liberal world order and its current crisis. It explores the historical rise of the liberal world order and establishes the relationship between its core political, economic, normative and institutional features. It analyses the aims and outcomes of core liberal foreign, international and transnational policies:

• democracy promotion
• liberal economic policies
• humanitarianism and the development of international law
• multilateralism and its institutionalisation
• interventions and war.

Module learning outcomes

• Identify the core principles, practices, institutions and actors of the liberal world order, and comprehend their logic of liberalism
• Analyse liberal-internationalist policies
• Establish connections between different liberal policies
• Evaluate a range of explanations for the crisis of the liberal world order, and ultimately provide a reasoned and well-substantiated assessment of the current crisis