ABSTRACT
The weaknesses in the legitimacy of the international order of the interwar era, which had given rise to revisionist strategies in Russia and Japan, were remedied to a significant extent by the post-Second World War developments. The end of the Cold War appeared to bring about the final triumph of the liberal international order, but this proved premature. Today, the legitimacy of the liberal international order is being questioned again due to the contradiction between liberal principle and US dominance, and due to the persisting tensions between state sovereignty and liberal universalism, making the future of the international order uncertain.
