Sustaining the Liberal Order as a Transatlantic Quest.

A key aspect in the dynamics of the "liberal" world order is the crisis of authority over global governance and political economy resulting from the relative decline of "the West". In their quest for sustaining liberalism as a norm and a force in world ordering, the United States and the European Union need to accomplish a strategic shift by making their partnership more effective, and, consequently, by reshaping their leadership role in international relations. Referring to multipolarisation in power structure, eclecticism in institutional governance, crisis in the world economy and finance and ideational confrontation over values, the paper will assess the strategies available for the transatlantic partners for making the necessary adaptations and compromises in what has been an established and successful post-war liberal world order, which is undergoing a post-cold war era of prolonged uncertainty brought about by globalisation and power transitions. The status and strength of liberalism is appraised within four dimensions of international order: power, governance, values and political economy. Despite power transition and the stagnation of the spread of democracy, the Western powers have been able to maintain the core of liberalism in global governance and political economy as the rising powers find absorption into the legacy order beneficial for them. A concluding question remains, whether, as an outcome of choices, or mixing, made by the liberal transatlantic powers among strategies of binding, bargaining, balancing and persuasion, with varying priorities between the goals of performance and redistribution, liberalism will engulf or accommodate the changes underway, or a modified liberal order will take form or a new and different model of world order will emerge in the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]