Countering our divisive times, this innovative book makes the conservative case in favor of international organizations and cooperation. Dalibor Rohac persuasively argues that, far from undermining national sovereignty, the mechanisms of international cooperation have been instrumental to humankind’s freedom, prosperity, and peace. Moreover, he shows that, unlike the caricature of international cooperation as a top-down imposition, in reality it is characterized by extreme institutional diversity. Its structures have typically emerged from the bottom up, in response to concrete challenges transcending national borders.
Moving beyond empty political rhetoric, Rohac’s meticulous research and clear analysis assess and explain the strengths, flaws, and relevant trade-offs of different forms of global governance. A powerful rebuttal to the temptations of nationalist populism, his work is a call to arms for thoughtful people on the center right to defend the central tenets of the post–World War II international order.
Praise for “In Defense of Globalism”
“In this new book, Dalibor Rohac offers conservatives a warning: their ‘marriage of convenience’ with nationalists will end in disaster. He also offers them a way out. An alternative, cosmopolitan, internationalist conservative tradition has long been dormant on the political right, and ‘In Defense of Globalism’ is an important attempt at reviving it.”
— Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and journalist; Professor in Practice, Institute of Global Affairs, London School of Economics and Political Science
“I greatly benefited from reading ‘In Defense of Globalism.’ It is unusual, perhaps unique, for a traditional supporter of a liberal world order to agree in almost every respect with a more conservative supporter of a liberal world order. Beyond agreement, however, it is particularly instructive to follow Mr. Rohac’s effective presentation of pertinent information and especially his original insights.”
— Charles Gati, senior research professor of European and Eurasian studies, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
“It has become fashionable lately to decry ‘globalists’ and ‘globalism’ for all manner of ills. With facts and logic, Dalibor Rohac argues the benefits of free trade, open societies and democratic alliances, courageously taking on his fellow conservatives who, whether out of opportunism or a misplaced deference to ‘the people,’ have abandoned all three.”
— James Kirchick, fellow, Brookings Institution; author, “The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age” (Yale University Press, 2017)
