Deconstructing/Reconstructing Liberal World Order for the 21st Century

This paper argues that liberal internationalism is in deep crisis and under threat from being eroded from inside by the same Eurocentric masters it has served. The first part traces the positivist principles and arguments presenting the liberal world order as a conditio sine qua non – as an actual condition of Western hegemony – benefitting the whole of mankind. The second part reflects on the critique of the Eurocentric understanding of world order. The third part explores the impact of the liberal international order and its concomitant policy device neoliberal globalization on the shift in balance between capital and labor. The final part focuses on the currents of the Left focusing on identity and political culture and asks whether there is a change to a more materialist approach which challenges the “culturalization of politics” that may be seen as distorting the realities of class exploitation and obfuscates the truth of the fundamental antagonism (class struggle). These seeming contradictions will be explored together with the aim to search for new avenues and reconstructions of class struggle and international solidarity.