Cosmopolitan Dystopia: International Intervention and the Failure of the West - Paperback

by Philip Cunliffe (Author)

Cosmopolitan Dystopia shows that rather than populists or authoritarian great powers it is cosmopolitan liberals who have done the most to subvert the liberal international order. Cosmopolitan Dystopia explains how liberal cosmopolitanism has led us to treat new humanitarian crises as unprecedented demands for military action, thereby trapping us in a loop of endless war. Attempts to normalize humanitarian emergency through the doctrine of the 'responsibility to protect' has made for a paternalist understanding of state power that undercuts the representative functions of state sovereignty. The legacy of liberal intervention is a cosmopolitan dystopia of permanent war, insurrection by cosmopolitan jihadis and a new authoritarian vision of sovereignty in which states are responsible for their peoples rather than responsible to them. This book will be of vital interest to scholars and students of international relations, IR theory and human rights.

Front Jacket

After thirty years of perpetual warfare by Western states under the banner of human rights, Cosmopolitan dystopia shows that more than populists or authoritarian great powers, it is cosmopolitan liberals themselves who have done the most to subvert the 'rules-based' liberal international order. Despite purporting to offer a more modest vision in opposition to the grand utopian schemes of the twentieth century, this book describes how cosmopolitan humanitarians succumbed to the intoxication of military power and crusading zeal to improve the world. Cosmopolitan dystopia examines how cosmopolitan exceptionalism has treated the eruption of every new humanitarian crisis as unprecedented, thereby nullifying historic experience and trapping us in a loop of endless war. The legacy of liberal intervention is now a cosmopolitan dystopia of permanent war, new great power rivalries, insurrection by cosmopolitan jihadists and a new authoritarian vision of sovereignty in which states are responsible for their peoples rather than responsible to them.

Back Jacket

After thirty years of perpetual warfare by Western states under the banner of human rights, Cosmopolitan dystopia shows that more than populists or authoritarian great powers, it is cosmopolitan liberals themselves who have done the most to subvert the 'rules-based' liberal international order. Despite purporting to offer a more modest vision in opposition to the grand utopian schemes of the twentieth century, this book describes how cosmopolitan humanitarians succumbed to the intoxication of military power and crusading zeal to improve the world.

Author Biography

Philip Cunliffe is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent