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Curb Your Enthusiasm: Middle-Power Liberal Internationalism and the Future of the United Nations

The future looks post-Western. But will it also be post-liberal?
LOUISE RIIS ANDERSEN, in assessing how and by whom liberal internationalism may be sustained in the coming order, provides a critical and historically grounded analysis of the role of the United Nations in the fading US-led order and the ordering potential and role of middle powers.
Writing in International Journal, she suggests that in the current interregnum of global governance the conventional distinction between traditional and emerging middle powers is increasingly unhelpful. “What matters is not their past history but their present proclivity for seeking multilateral, negotiated solutions.” It is this pragmatic version of liberal internationalism that may have a future in a post-Western world, and open up a more pluralist, inclusive approach to global governance.
“The world order is in flux. That much we know. The shape of things to come, however, remains anybody’s guess,” ANDERSEN states in her essay titled ‘Curb your enthusiasm: Middle-power liberal internationalism and the future of the United Nations’. The emerging order could be multipolar or bipolar or end up taking on new and unforeseen forms of multi-order, multiplex, networked arrangements that defy easy categorization.
Debating the future of the UN is interesting in its own right, the author states. “Here it provides a prism for understanding the crisis of liberal internationalism, including the suggestion that the crisis has been brought upon liberals themselves through their own post-Cold War triumphalism.” The problem is not as much liberal excess as it is liberal amnesia: liberal internationalists have forgotten the pragmatic, even realist, roots of the rules-based world order that has the UN at its center.
If liberal internationalism is to be sustained in the coming order, it must be in a revised form that brings out and revitalizes pragmatism and the will to compromise as a key element in international affairs. Such a revision – if it is to come – is most likely to emerge from middle powers who have the strength and authority to act independently of the great powers, yet whose limited capabilities and inability to dictate outcomes or decisions make them prone to favor negotiated solutions over the use of force.
Noting that the crisis of the current order is mostly debated on US terms, ANDERSEN states that emphasis is placed on questions related to hegemonic decline, imperial overreach, and the rise of rivalling global powers (notably China). While one cannot and should not underestimate the role played by the US in firstly establishing and now undermining the post-1945 institutional order, a broader and more nuanced perspective is needed if we are to, firstly, understand the dynamics that have brought the existing order into its current crisis, and, secondly, contemplate in which forms – and by whom – elements of liberal internationalism might be sustained in a future order.
Turning to the middle powers, she states that the debate is conventionally shaped by a distinction between traditional, Western middle powers – widely conceptualized as stabilizers and legitimizers of the existing US-led order – and emerging, Global South middle powers more prone to revisionist and counter-hegemonic behavior. This distinction is increasingly unhelpful. When the hegemon itself is determined to destroy the institutional order established under its reign, ‘traditional’ middle-power liberal internationalism becomes counterhegemonic, while the revisions suggested by emerging powers emerge as stabilizing.
The essay looks, firstly, to the past to revisit the constitutional process that spurred the establishment of the UN in 1945 as an inherently paradoxical and limited instrument. Secondly, it looks to the present to outline the troubled position held by the UN within the US-led world order, and how this relates to the current crisis of liberal order. Finally, in conclusion, it looks to the future to identify how a revised, pragmatic middle-power liberal internationalism centered around the UN may help stabilize the current interregnum.
“The fluidity of both the players and the plot is part of what makes the interregnum of global governance so difficult to grasp,” ANDERSEN states. Revisiting and restoring a more statist, pragmatic version of liberal internationalism may, however, help bring back some of the predictability and stability that middle powers tend to favor.
Emphasizing negotiated rather than imposed solutions, and the importance of dialogue and compromise in politics and diplomacy, opens a space for a more pluralist and inclusive approach to global governance and international rulemaking. “While this will not sustain the liberal order of the post-Cold War era, it will surely be necessary to stabilize the transition from a US-led order to a post-Western world.”

Andersen, L. R. (2019). Curb your enthusiasm: Middle-power liberal internationalism and the future of the United Nations. International Journal, 74(1), 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020702019833739

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BEYOND BLUE HELMETS: Promoting Weapons and Ammunition Management in Non-UN Peace Operations

More than 25 organizations apart from the United Nations have deployed more than 100 peace operations to date. These non-UN organizations face the same challenges as the UN in securing their contingent-owned equipment (COE) and the lethal materiel they recover. Non-UN peace operations may even be more vulnerable to these challenges than UN operations, according to a new report.
Thousands of small arms and light weapons as well as millions of rounds of ammunition have been lost in recent years as a result of attacks on fixed sites, patrols, and convoy movements, according to the report, ‘Beyond Blue Helmets: Promoting Weapons and Ammunition Management in Non-UN Peace Operations’. Forced abandonment of COE, burglary, theft, corruption, as well as poor discipline and practices also contribute to diversion of materiel.
The report, published by Small Arms Survey last month, focuses on defining key terms, identifying the actors undertaking non-UN peacekeeping operations, and analyzing the challenges they face as well as the control measures that exist to mitigate the risks and reduce the loss of arms and ammunition.
Written by ERIC G. BERMAN, ‘Beyond Blue Helmets’ also highlights efforts some of these actors are presently undertaking to develop more effective checks and balances to enhance weapons and ammunition management practices in peace operations and suggests additional measures that could be undertaken towards these ends.
“Some regional organizations have undertaken to create or implement existing controls to reduce the chances of such diversion,” according to the report. Given overlapping memberships, some regional organizations (such as the Lake Chad Basin Commission) can benefit from the commitments their member states have made as part of other arms control frameworks (such as the Economic Community of West African States Convention).
“This assumes an attention to detail and a congruency among organizations and arms control frameworks that currently do not exist but may be changing,” BERMAN states. “The UN can benefit from commitments its member states have made as part of regional frameworks that are more stringent than the UN’s requirements.”

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