The US, the West, and international law in an age of strategic competition

In this lecture, I want to tackle the following question: What's in store for the global legal order now that the West--for all its power and influence--seems to be no longer hegemonic? In other words, as we enter a new age of strategic competition, should we be concerned about the so-called "rules-based order" and, if so, what should be the precise nature of our concern? Finding alternative answers is rather urgent because if you move in trans-Atlantic circles or read the major newspapers and magazines in the English language, you will notice that one specific storyline is taking root quite rapidly. It holds that the future of international law hinges upon the changing balance of power between liberals in the West and their enemies in the West and beyond it. The enemies include the forces of illiberalism at home, autocratic Russia, autocratic China, and the multitude of nonaligned developing countries that, apparently devoid of any strong moral commitments, seek to take advantage of the current situation, hedging their bets rather than siding with the rising autocrats or the West.