Realistic Internationalism: When Two Worlds Collide

Abstract

“Domestic politics can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us,” U.S. president John F. Kennedy quipped shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Almost sixty years later, his words resonate on an international stage plagued with hostile tensions. Following a euphoric acceleration of economic growth and democratization in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, the liberal world order has fallen short of the ideas of international cooperation and globalization with the rise of China and Russia. Some said internationalism was inevitable, yet illiberal ideas continue to advance, regardless of this unprecedented historical progress of humankind.