from International Institutions and Global Governance Program

Democratic Internationalism

An American Grand Strategy for a Post-exceptionalist Era

November 15, 2012

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Overview

In this International Institutions and Global Governance Working Paper, Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry trace the history of liberal internationalism and find that the existing U.S. foreign policy architecture is ill-equipped to address emerging challenges in a dramatically changing global landscape. Although the world is now predominantly democratic—largely due to American leadership and influence over the past half-century—cooperation among democracies is weak and the distribution of power is shifting away from the United States and its democratic allies in Europe. To reestablish its historical role as an indispensable global leader, the authors argue that the United States should initiate a new phase of democratic internationalism based on the "pull of success rather than the push of power" that "deepens democracy globally, prevents democratic backsliding, and strengthens and consolidates bonds among democratic states."

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