https://doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00342
John J. Mearsheimer, writing in International Security, targets foreign-policy planners with a structural diagnosis of the liberal international order’s collapse. He argues that three inherent flaws—democracy promotion, sovereignty backlashes, and hyperglobalization—inevitably doomed the unipolar system from its inception. This sweeping critique persuades powerfully but never exposes its verdict to actual disconfirmation, allowing the realist conclusion to sit safely within a rigged historical framing. Mearsheimer sidesteps the strongest counterarguments from scholars like Ikenberry and Keohane while outsourcing his core economic claims to borrowed authorities like Kuttner and Ruggie. He ultimately delivers a commanding verdict that persuades without proving, creating a closed loop where history merely confirms the realism it presupposes.