Aporia and Responsibilisation in the Liberal International Order

Abstract This article examines the persistent tension between liberalism’s anti-hierarchical ethos and the need for effective responsibility allocation to perpetuate the liberal international order (LIO). While the LIO aspires to reproduce itself through codified rules and norms, these mechanisms often fail under conditions of aporia – moments of radical uncertainty where procedural compliance cannot guarantee ethically responsible action. Drawing on Derrida’s ‘aporia of responsibility’, the article argues that the order’s guarantors increasingly rely on responsibilisation – a governance technique that induces states to internalise responsibility for the order in exchange for status recognition. Through theoretical analysis and empirical illustrations of US foreign policy, the study demonstrates how responsibilisation operates as a substitute for coercion and hierarchy, enabling the liberal core to ‘govern at a distance’ while preserving the order’s liberal logic. However, the politicisation of ‘responsible behaviour’ and competing interpretations among major powers perpetuate uncertainty, suggesting that aporias will remain a structural feature of the LIO.