Matt Welch’s passionate monologue on the most recent episode of the Fifth Column podcast reveals the substance underneath the foreign policy debate riling America today. “Do I have to be the last globalist?” he asked. “I’ll be the f—ing last globalist. It’s something to think about more seriously.” He meant that “globalist” has become such a toxic pejorative that nobody is willing to stand behind it. But there is something behind it, and we should be having a real conversation. So, let’s do that. In this post I am going to explain what the liberal rules-based order is (that’s a big part of what is referred to as “globalism”), do my best to pass the ideological Turing test against the liberal rules-based order, and then give my earnest case for it after all.
Here we go.