Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s international thought anticipates many of the political dynamics that have arisen through globalization and great power competition. Rousseau and the Limits of the Liberal International Order considers Rousseau as a critic and a reformer of international politics, arguing that Rousseau’s account of liberty drives his approach to the international realm.

Rousseau’s work provides an incisive critique. He dismantles notions of economic rationalism, rejects the preference for administration over self-governance, and encourages strategies of...