Liberal leviathan : the origins, crisis, and transformation of the American World Order / G. John Ikenberry.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Crisis of the old order -- Theoretical foundations: Power and the varieties of order ; Power and strategies of rule ; Unipolarity and its consequences -- Historical origins and trajectories of change: The rise of the American system ; The great transformation and the failure o illiberal hegemony ; Dilemmas and pathways of liberal international order ; Conclusion: the durability of liberal international order.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the United States engaged in the most ambitious and far-reaching liberal order building the world had yet seen. This liberal international order has been one of the most successful in providing security and prosperity to more people, but in the last decade the American-led order has been troubled. Some argue that the Bush administration undermined it. Others argue that we are witnessing he end of the American era. In Liberal Leviathan G. John Ikenberry argues that the crisis that besets the American-led order is a crisis of authority. The forces that have triggered this crisis have resulted from the successful functioning and expansion of the postwar liberal order, not its breakdown.

Ikenberry provides the most systematic statement yet about the theory and practice or the liberal international order, and a forceful message for policymakers, scholars, and general readers about why America must renegotiate its relationship with the rest of the world and pursue a more enlightened strategy-that of the liberal leviathan.