The unexpected narrative

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

In the framework of the SPS Departmental Seminar Series, this session features a talk by the STG Professor Trine Flockhart.

The liberal international order (LIO) has been in crisis for years as contestations of its power, principles and practice have increased both from outside the order and within it. However, with the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States – the leading state and main architect of the LIO – a new form of crisis has appeared, which may not be possible to incorporate into the on-going narrative about the LIO. The paper will map the self-governance processes of the LIO in response to change in its external environment by identifying how change and continuity in the patterns of power, principle, practice, and the vision of the good life has been narrated within the order since the end of the Cold War. The paper will proceed to outline how the current Trump Administration challenges all elements of the LIO and will consider the diminishing prospects for maintaining a sense-making narrative of the LIO, and what the consequences will be if such a narrative cannot be maintained. The paper will emphasise the importance of a shared vision of the good life, legitimacy of the power patterns of the order, the salience of its principles and the functionality of its practices – all of which is plainly challenged by the Trump Administration. It will seek to assess the extent to which the current challenges undermine the resilience of the LIO and raise the possibility of its fractioning.

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