Kyle Lascurettes: 'Great Power Politics, Hegemonic Ordering, and the Liberal Order' (Princeton RWO)

On November 10, 2022, the Reimagining World Order (RWO) research community at Princeton University (PIIRS) hosted Professor Kyle Lascurettes (Lewis & Clark College) for this year's fourth meeting of its World Order Colloquium.

Why do hegemonic actors establish or change international orders—or the particular set of rules that establish parameters for states’ behavior on the world stage—when and as they do? In this talk, Professor Lascurettes argued that throughout history great power orderers have been motivated most often by competition and exclusion, advocating for order changes out of a desire to combat and weaken other actors rather than cooperatively engaging with them. In contrast with prominent prior accounts, he posits that the origins of the American-led liberal international order fits comfortably within this historical pattern of exclusion rather than transcending it. Viewing the life and times of the liberal order through an exclusionary lens can help illuminate why this order served American interests so well for decades but is under increasing strain today.

Kyle M. Lascurettes is Associate Professor of International Affairs at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches courses in global order, international organizations, and international relations theory. He is the author of "Orders of Exclusion: Great Powers and the Strategic Sources of Foundational Rules in International Relations" (Oxford University Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 APSA Jervis-Schroeder Prize for best book in international history and politics and the 2021-22 Otto Hieronymi Prize for best scholarly monograph in the field of international relations.