Geopolitics and Democracy

Reviews / Votes

Timely and compelling, Geopolitics and Democracy argues that since the end of the Cold War, government leaders in the West broke the social contract underpinning the liberal international order they built. By focusing their efforts on market globalization and the pooling sovereignty at the international level, while reducing social protections at home, Western government leaders overstretched public support for their actions, paving the way for growing anti-globalization sentiment. The book is a model for how to bridge insights from international relations and domestic politics, and does an exceptional job of marshalling a wealth of available evidence to make nuanced arguments about the state and future of the Western-led liberal order. I strongly encourage everyone to read it. * Catherine E. De Vries, Professor of Political Science, Bocconi University * In this tour de force, Trubowitz and Burgoon offer a new and compelling portrait of the shifting and fraught domestic foundations of Western democracy and its postwar leadership of the liberal world order. Beautifully written and deeply researched, Geopolitics and Democracy chronicles the decades-in-the-making erosion of support for liberal internationalism in Western societies-and points to ways in which liberal democracies might once again bring their ambitions and capacities back into line. * G. John Ikenberry, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University * Trubowitz and Burgoon offer a highly readable and persuasive argument about the interaction between populism and the unraveling of the liberal international order. A notable contribution helping us understand our politics today. * Kathleen R. McNamara, Professor of Government and Foreign Service, Georgetown University * This ambitious book synthesizes existing scholarship and also breaks new ground, theoretically and empirically. The authors argue convincingly that the embrace of 'globalism' by Western political elites has been accompanied by domestic reforms that have undermined public support for the liberal international order. A must-read for students of comparative welfare-state politics as well as international political economy and international relations. * Jonas Pontusson, Professor of Comparative Politics, Universite de Geneve * Geopolitics and Democracy is essential reading for everyone who wants to grasp the root causes of the anti-globalist pressures in today's liberal democracies and the resulting crisis of the liberal international order. Based on a rigorous analysis of a wealth of data, Trubowitz and Burgoon challenge standard accounts of liberal internationalism's decline and show how trade liberalization and neoliberal governance have contributed to the widening gap between governments and voters in the West. * Wolfgang Wagner, Professor of International Security, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam * Geopolitics and Democracy is a thought-provoking book that studies the challenges to the liberal international order from a broad perspective. Drawing on insights from different subfields that are usually studied in isolation, paying attention to different levels of analysis, and presenting a vast array of empirical findings, this book provides a provocative new perspective on why the Western liberal world order has come under pressure and what could be done to change this. * Stefanie Walter, Professor of International Relations and Political Economy, University of Zurich * A big, grand sweeping and important argument. Geopolitics and Democracy makes a powerful case that Western governments got well ahead of what their populations would support when they decided to deepen and broaden the liberal international order after 1990. * William C. Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor of Government, Dartmouth College * [A] groundbreaking study * Foreign Affairs * This book is easy to read and highly recommended for college and university libraries and larger public library systems. More importantly, political leaders and policy professionals would do well to heed its findings and recommendations. * Choice * In their interesting, carefully crafted book on the problems facing liberal international order, Peter Trubowitz and Brian Burgoon argue that, for Western states, their geopolitical predicament is premised on their domestic politics. * Professor George Lawson, Australian Outlook * In their interesting, carefully crafted book on the problems facing liberal international order, Peter Trubowitz and Brian Burgoon argue that, for Western states, their geopolitical predicament is premised on their domestic politics. * Professor George Lawson, Australian Outlook * Geopolitics and Democracy indeed provides a great and novel scholarship with a holistic view through acknowledging the what, why, and how to restore the wounds of liberal world order without over-exaggerating the inclusiveness of the West through critical assessment. * Monika, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India, Democratization * Geopolitics and Democracy offers a valuable and innovative academic perspective that takes into account the causes, reasons, and methods of addressing the challenges facing the liberal world order. * Mohammad Imtiyaz, LSE Review of Books * This book is an important addition to the burgeoning literature on the crisis of the so-called liberal international order (LIO) ... What sets this book apart is the innovative way in which the authors comprehensively quantify the trends that so many have already identified. The book features 34 figures and an extensive appendix that provide data on 24 western countries and more than 400 political parties, across seven decades. Drawing on databases and indicators that measure party policy positions, military spending and support for economic openness, Trubowitz and Burgoon correlate this data to show trends in the relationship between partnership and power (the dynamics of support for international cooperation and military spending). * Hubert Zimmermann, International Affairs *