Future of the Liberal World Order
The clean energy transition involves a complex web of ethical dilemmas for individuals; research institutions; associations; corporations; government institutions; international platforms; and intergenerational considerations. Based on existing principles and protocols on human rights, the environment and transparency and accountability in government, guidelines for addressing some of these ethical dilemmas are clearer than others. In addition, […]
Read MoreThe most consequential ethical dilemmas surrounding the clean energy transition
The clean energy transition is not optional. It is a moral imperative to combat climate change and protect the planet for future generations. Yet this transformation is far more than a technical challenge. It is a deeply political and ethical question about how we share costs and benefits in a world marked by inequality. Phasing out fossil […]
Read MoreAugust 4, 2025 Introduction[1] The illiberal turn in the world is undeniable (Applebaum 2025; Enyedi et al. 2025; Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018). The Variety of Democracy’s 2025 lists the following facts: Source: Nord, Marina, David Altman, Fabio Angiolillo, Tiago Fernandes, Ana Good God, and Staffan I. Lindberg. 2025. Democracy Report 2025: 25 Years of Autocratization […]
Read MoreThe Liberal World Order and the Future of Transatlanticism: Tensions, Debates and Critiques
European University Institute, Florence, 9–10 June 2025Session 1: The Global Assault on the Liberal World Order Question 1: Is the decline of the liberal order an inevitable consequence of its own contradictions? In the institutional systems of nation-states, the liberal political order is founded on the principle of limiting all forms of power and their […]
Read MoreVulnerability and Precarity in a Post-Liberal Order: Lessons from Ukraine
August 15, 2025[1] Since the end of the Cold War, former communist, East European states were given the opportunity to become full members of a Western-led liberal international order (Ikenberry, 2018). A broad set of countries could pursue the goals of stability, peace, and economic growth by establishing or joining multilateral treaties and liberal organizations, […]
Read More“Small” states historically have been central to upholding and legitimizing the liberal international order – often in the face of opposition of the world’s great powers. But they also reveal a longstanding paradox in this international order – no state engaged this order can be defined as wholly “liberal.” Interrogating TermsIn our current moment – […]
Read MoreIntroduction In his seminal book on varieties of international political orders, John Ikenberry construed that after 1945 a constitutional international order (hereafter: CIO) had been established, an order where “international institutions bind powerful and weaker states together, creating a difficult-to-change institutional framework within which their relations are carried out, and thereby establishing some limits on […]
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