Order, Counter-Order, Disorder? Alliances, Orders, and International Security

15 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2021

See all articles by Jordan Becker

Jordan Becker

United States Military Academy, Department of Social Science; Free University of Brussels (VUB)-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Institute for European Studies, Students; Chaire ECODEF - IHEDN; Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’Ecole Militaire (IRSEM - Institute for Strategic Research)

Date Written: March 6, 2021

Abstract

I argue that while Braumoeller makes a very convincing case that war remains with us, he also acknowledges that the rate of conflict initiation declined at the end of the Cold War, which is significant. The policy insight here is not to declare victory over war and move on, but to avoid the “irony of Pinkerism (Mitzen 2013:525)” – wherein national leaders schooled in Steven Pinker’s (2012) arguments about the long-term decline of violence behave in ways that make those arguments into a “self-defeating prophecy (Fazal and Poast 2019:83).” I contend that assiduously and continually reconstructing international order is central to mitigating this risk of Pinkerist triumphalism leading to complacency, an unwinding of the current international order, and a rise in international conflict. I further contend that alliances are central to such order: since at least the end of World War II, US alliances have anchored regional orders in both Asia and Europe (Rynning and Schmitt 2018; Goh and Sahashi 2020).

Keywords: Order, Alliances, International Relations, Security, International Organizations

Suggested Citation

Becker, Jordan, Order, Counter-Order, Disorder? Alliances, Orders, and International Security (March 6, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3799085 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3799085

Jordan Becker (Contact Author)

United States Military Academy, Department of Social Science ( email )

600 Thayer Rd
West Point, NY 10996
United States

Free University of Brussels (VUB)-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Institute for European Studies, Students ( email )

Ixelles
Belgium

Chaire ECODEF - IHEDN ( email )

Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’Ecole Militaire (IRSEM - Institute for Strategic Research) ( email )

École Militaire - case 38
1, place Joffre
Paris SP 07, 75007
France

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