Description
Liberal internationalism is in an increasingly beleaguered and ‘absurd’ position. Historically, a liberal internationalist cosmology provided existential sustenance for states and populations seeking ontological security in an uncertain world. However, the weakening of Western hegemony and the global strengthening of illiberal political movements place liberal internationalism—as a system of meaning—in an increasingly precarious position. Moreover, growing awareness of liberal internationalism’s entwinement with (post-)colonial violence threatens to further undermine its existential foundations. Drawing on Albert Camus’s absurdism and existential psychology, this paper develops the concept of ‘liberal absurdity’. This concept captures the tension between the yearning for meaning found within a Western-liberal cosmology, and the growing fragility of this system of meaning. This paper also engages with decolonial critiques of liberal internationalism as a prism for thinking about how liberal-Western subjects might respond to this seemingly absurd condition.
