No. 317: The “Rules-Based Order”: Conflicting Understandings

Author(s): Boas Lieberherr
Series Editor(s): Névine Schepers, Sophie-Charlotte Fischer, Julian Kamasa, Fabien Merz
Series: CSS Analyses in Security Policy
Issue: 317
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zürich
Publication Year: 2023

Advocacy for a rules-based order has come to define the foreign policy of various countries. What this concept entails, however, remains vague, and significant differences in respective understandings persist. From the perspective of its proponents, part of the term’s utility may lie in its ambiguity. The question is whether the new terminology can contribute to a common understanding of the essential rules, norms, and institutions that should govern international relations.

Download:

English (PDF)
German (PDF)
French (PDF)