Description
The 21st Century world is witnessing escalating international competition and threats to 'liberal international order', as the major powers involved have affirmed. Russia warns of an “intensification of global competition,” the European Union expresses concerns about a “competition of governance systems accompanied by a real battle of narratives,” while NATO asserts that “rising strategic competition and advancing authoritarianism challenge the Alliance’s interests and values.” Such statements allude to the possibility that heightened ideological competition is an important dimension of increasing disorder, yet ideology's precise role and significance is uncertain and contentious. This roundtable will consider this ideological dimension of growing challenges to international order, and how a recent growth of interest in ideology within International Relations scholarship can help theorise it. Contributors to the panel will consider how ideology and international (dis)order should be understood, how ideology relates to bloc politics, and the ideological challenge posed by Xi Jinping's China, Vladimir Putin's Russia, and 'sovereigntist' movements within established liberal democracies.
All members of this roundtable are participants in the 'Contemporary and Historical Ideological Competition in World Politics' research network, created with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
