| Summary/Abstract |
The article deals with the transformation of the Western liberal democratic model
and international relations amid Cold War II. Sources of liberal authoritarianism
are identified, and the West’s ongoing authoritarian turn is conceptualized in
terms of postliberalism. The latter is scrutinized through the political West’s
efforts to protect liberal democracy and its values, and to establish global
Gemeinschaft of liberal democracies through containment, deterrence, and
encirclement. This process is seen as being interconnected with the intensifying
conflict between liberal and sovereign internationalism over the international
system. Whereas the political West asserts the rules-based order, the internally
heterogeneous Global Majority seeks to establish a polycentric model based
on the centrality of the UN Charter and the principles of peaceful coexistence.
Hegemonism is compared with the Global Majority’s emancipatory aspirations
that have led to the large-scale confrontation with the political West since 2022.
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