This volume explores the Western-led liberal order that is claimed to be in crisis. Simultaneously, the West still appears to be needed in order to imagine the global order by promoters of liberal peace as well as its opponents.

1. Introduction: Marko Lehti, Henna-Riikka Pennanen, Jukka Jouhki.- 2. Beyond Liberal Empire and Peace — Declining Hegemony of the West?: Marko Lehti, Henna-Riikka Pennanen.- 3. Crises of the West — Liberal Identities and Ontological (In)Security: Marko Lehti, Henna-Riikka Pennanen.- 4. From Identification to Division — Contesting the Unity of the West from Within: Johanna Vuorelma.- 5. The West — Divided in Freedom and Fear?: Ville Sinkkonen, Henri Vogt.- 6. Coming Out Against Islam — The Weaponisation of Tolerance in the Liberal West: Roderick McGlynn.- 7. The Contested Open Society — German Political Establishment and the New Right: Ann-Judith Rabenschlag.- 8. Imagining the West in the Era of America First: Henna-Riikka Pennanen, Anna Kronlund.- 9.  Resilience of the Humanitarian Narrative in United States Foreign Policy: Noora Kotilainen.- 10. Confrontational Civilizational Identityin the Making? The New Turkey and the West:Toni Alaranta.- 11. Russian Radical Conservative Challenge to the Liberal Global Order: Jussi Backman.- 12. A Non-World — Chinese Perceptions of the Western International Order: Matti Puranen.- 13. Balancing Between Narratives of the West and Hindu Nationalism in Emerging India: Jukka Jouhki

This volume explores the Western-led liberal order that is claimed to be in crisis. Currently, the West appears less as a modernizing or civilizing entity leading the way and more as being engulfed in a deep crisis. Simultaneously, the West still appears to be needed in order to imagine the global order by promoters of liberal peace as well as its opponents. This book asks how and why “crisis” is needed for constituting “the West,” liberal, and global order and how these three are conjoined and reinvented. The book encompasses narratives endorsing and rejecting the West and the liberal international order, as well as alternative visions for a post-Western world conceived within the rising and challenging powers. The study is of interest to scholars and students of international relations, critical security studies, peace and conflict research, and social sciences in general. Marko Lehti is Professor at Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI) at Tampere University,Finland. His research focuses on peace mediation and dialogues, crises of liberal peace, transformation of identities, and the idea of Nordic peace. His recent publication is The Era of Private Peacemakers (Palgrave 2019).Henna-Riikka Pennanen is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku, Finland. Her research focuses on the United States–East Asia relations in the past and present.Jukka Jouhki is Senior Lecturer of Anthropology at the Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He is the Director of The West Network endorsing multidisciplinary research on ‘the West’. His research focuses on communities and their identities.

Approaches crisis-talk with an understanding that the concepts of crisis, the West, liberal, and liberal international order are contingent and contested Engages with perspectives from Europe and the United States as well as from China, India, Russia, and Turkey Examines the contestations of liberal norms and values, and the alternatives to liberal world order and Western hegemony