Owning the liberal international order

The coalition that returned Donald Trump to the American presidency is a diverse and divided one, even among the ‘post-liberal’ members of the so-called New Right. Much attention has been paid recently to the rival social and political visions promoted by the nationalists, on the one hand, and the tech elite, on the other. Important as these disagreements are to domestic politics, both factions are openly contemptuous of liberal internationalism, albeit for different underlying reasons. The result is that Trump’s administration will be more united on the world stage than at home, looking to reset the rules of international relations using three tactics: unilateralism, economic warfare and the personalisation of diplomacy.