Liberal international order (LIO) has been argued to be facing crisis both in academic and policy circles, especially since 2016. Although it is significant to develop better understanding of LIO and its condition, the conceptual understanding and the assessment of its situation vary among analysts. The conventional wisdom of the crisis of LIO seems questionable since the arguments being made are inherently subjective and nonneutral, despite attempts to make the analysis objective. Some reconsiderations of the crisis of LIO were made to advance the knowledge of the crisis, mainly by sophisticating its conceptualization and operationalization to be as objective as it can. However, these attempts overlook that the inherent nature of international order including LIO is intersubjective, not objective. This article aimed to reconsider the crisis of LIO, focusing on the year 2016, emphasizing the intersubjective nature of LIO. Although it is mainly considered as a prior work or a part of research conducted, literature review can be a relevant method for research by itself. Considering individual works as subjects and a common consideration on the crisis of LIO related to 2016 as something intersubjective, the illustration of the overview based on literature review should be the best method to reconsider the theme. This article found that the entanglement of two theoretically contradictory elements related to LIO has been causing the complication of the concept of LIO and the argument on the crisis of it: one considering the problem in the function of multilateralism, and another considering the problem with the power and roles of the United States and other Western states to form and sustain LIO. It was also found that the arguments emphasizing the former consider LIO to be an international order based on the denial of traditional power politics in international relations, and on the other hand, works with the latter tendency understand that the strength of the US and Western powers in power politics is what formed LIO.
Yuki Moritani (Fri,) studied this question.