Introduction

Abstract

During the 1990s, liberal internationalism experienced a remarkable ‘comeback’ (Gardner 1990). The end of the Cold War was widely interpreted — by academics, politicians, and the media alike — as ush- ering in a new, and liberal, world order. The ‘triumph’ of liberalism over its main competitor(s) seemed to support its core assumptions of a progressive historical development toward the realization of individ- ual freedom, prosperity, and domestic as well as international peace and cooperation (Fukuyama 1989). Liberalism, in short, seemed to be exceptionally in tune with the ‘global developmental processes’ which had finally swept it to the top and led to a liberal hegemony in the international system (Ikenberry 2006: 146).