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The liberal, "rules-based" order faces its greatest crisis since the end of the Cold War. Liberalism is in retreat around the world. Authoritarian regimes have become more numerous and increasingly repressive. International norms are unravelling. Yet there is little sign of a new, post-liberal order. Talk of a global power shift to the East is commonplace, but despite the growing influence of China, a "multipolar" world remains an abstraction. Instead, there is a growing void in global governance – a new world disorder.
In a broad and erudite narrative, Bobo Lo argues that there is no future in a return to dominant US leadership, great power competition or the post-Cold War chimera of a geopolitics-free world. The way forward lies in a more inclusive and flexible order, driven by a common purpose in meeting universal challenges, such as climate change, pandemic disease and global poverty.
— Fiona Hill, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
The Disorderly Society is a sharp, sober analysis of the passing of the old international order. But its real importance is in the hope that it provides for the revitalization of global governance. It is elegantly written, grounded in realism, and leavened with original ideas. Bobo Lo has provided a timely rejoinder to those who fear that geopolitical competition and disorder have once again become the defining features of world affairs.
— Anthony Bubalo, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Society Australia
The Disorderly Society is a compelling and timely account of the failures of statecraft and imagination that have led to the unravelling of international order. Bobo Lo distils a lifetime of studying Great Power rivalry, drawing on his deep expertise in Russia and China, to address uncomfortable truths about the West’s own role in the current state of affairs and to offer thought-provoking recommendations for how to avoid catastrophe.
— Sir Laurie Bristow, President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge and former UK Ambassador to Russia, 2016–20
Bobo Lo offers a thoughtful critique of the rules-based international order that has collapsed. He provides a provocative prescription for revitalizing global governance and creating an international society that reflects the realities and needs of the world in the twenty-first century.
— Angela Stent, author of Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest
Prologue: A parable of global disorder
Introduction
1. The rise and decline of the liberal order
2. A world disorder
3. Principles of a new internationalism
4. The United States, China, and the making of a twenty-first-century relationship
5. Powers in flux: adapting to change
6. Flexible multilateralism
7. Thinking beyond the state
Epilogue: Tomorrow's world