Just a decade or so ago, it was fashionable to argue that the liberal political order of open markets, globalisation, the rule of law and democracy were on an inevitable trajectory towards world domin­ance. The defeat of Fascism and the fall of Communism seemed to suggest as much.  Now, in the wake of the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crisis, it can seem as if Western institutions and economic systems are in a state of decay, with the world in the midst of an epochal transition from European-US hegemony to an order in which others – China and Russia – step in to fill the void.