Reflections on After Victory

After Victory appeared in the spring of 2001, in what now seems like a different era. The book looks at the great postwar moments – 1815, 1919, 1945, and the end of the Cold War – when the ‘old order’ is swept away and newly powerful states shape a ‘new order’. In this essay, I offer reflections on After Victory’s arguments about the character and evolution of international order in the modern era, American hegemonic order in the 20th century, and the logic of institutions and strategic restraint. I explore the theoretical debates that it engaged and triggered. The essay looks at how the book’s arguments stand up to the face of more recent developments – the Bush administration’s Iraq War, the rise of China, the American ‘empire debate’, and the Trump administration’s radical assault on the post-1945 liberal international order.