Cosmopolitan Dystopia : International Intervention and the Failure of the West

Liberal cosmopolitanism promised a humane and progressive vision of global reform and improvement, in contrast to the terrible utopian projects of the twentieth century. Yet the efforts to globalise human rights and democracy through force have subverted the liberal international order and produced a new type of cosmopolitan dystopia, in the form of permanent war, jihadist insurrection and a new paternalism embodied in transnational protectorates and the paradigm of ‘sovereignty as responsibility’. Cosmopolitan Dystopia explains how this came about through the rise of humanitarian exceptionalism. The book argues that humanitarian exceptionalism saw humanitarian emergencies as opportunities to develop deeper forms of human solidarity that went beyond nation states, thereby necessitating military responses to each new crisis. This in turn helped to normalise permanent war. As the norm and exception have collapsed into each other, the rules-based order envisioned in traditional liberal internationalism has corroded away. Efforts to embed humanitarian exceptionalism into the international order have undermined the classical liberal ideal of self-determination, with the spread of protectorates and a new paternalist legitimisation of state power in the ‘sovereignty as responsibility’ paradigm. Cosmopolitan Dystopia' shows that rather than populists or authoritarian great powers it is cosmopolitan liberals who have done the most to subvert the liberal international order. 'Cosmopolitan Dystopia' explains how liberal cosmopolitanism has led us to treat new humanitarian crises as unprecedented demands for military action, thereby trapping us in a loop of endless war. Attempts to normalize humanitarian emergency through the doctrine of the 'responsibility to protect' has made for a paternalist understanding of state power that undercuts the representative functions of state sovereignty. The legacy of liberal intervention is a cosmopolitan dystopia of permanent war, insurrection by cosmopolitan jihadis and a new authoritarian vision of sovereignty in which states are responsible for their peoples rather than responsible to them. This book will be of vital interest to scholars and students of international relations, IR theory and human rights Front matter Contents List of figures Preface and acknowledgements Introduction: the rise of cosmopolitan dystopia Inverted revisionism and the subversion of the liberalinternational order Through the looking-glass: the new critics of intervention What should we do? The politics of humanitarian exceptionalism Failed states, failed empires and the new paternalism Conclusion: waiting for the Americans Notes Bibliography Index Cosmopolitan Dystopia evaluates cosmopolitan liberalism and shows In their effort to avoid the terrible fate of twentieth century utopias, cosmopolitan liberals have nonetheless created a new global dystopia of permanent war and authoritarian power embodied in ‘sovereignty as responsibility’.