Acknowledgements

This book has been written in an era when civility of political debate in established democracies is faltering over a particular hurdle: reluctance among political opponents to acknowledge when competing norms and values are not merely rhetoric to mask self-serving interests, but represent good faith commitment to sincerely held beliefs. Assuming the calculated hypocrisy of one’s opponents establishes an insurmountable barrier to constructive dialogue towards a better politics. So it is with global legal order, where recognition of competing yet sincere commitment to rule of law ideals becomes the baseline for any meaningful discourse over the rules and institutions organising international life. As in politics, learning to see through the eyes of others is not to surrender one’s own conception of rightful conduct but to take seriously and engage with alternative worldviews. The people and institutions I thank here have together taught me to undertake this critical task, both in the book that follows and when looking to the world beyond.

I give thanks foremost to the Berlin Potsdam Research Group ‘International Law: Rise or Decline?’ and its members, whose commitment to scholarship on the politics and future of international law has made this book possible. In particular I am indebted to the leadership of Professors Georg Nolte, Heike Krieger and Andreas Zimmermann, whose innovative work I have long followed and from whom it has been an honour to learn and grow as an international lawyer during my years in Berlin. Every colleague at the group has contributed to and improved my scholarship in innumerable ways, including Professor Campbell McLachlan in furnishing me with comments during a roundtable discussion of the book, Dr Nina Reiners for reviewing draft chapters, my office mate for two years Dr Velimir Zivkovic, Dr Dana Burchardt, Dr Felix Lange, Dr James Devaney, Julian Kulaga and, finally, Kerstin Schuster and all the administrative staff and students who have provided so much support.

I also owe deep gratitude to the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney for its many years of scholarly, financial and personal support, without which the original research would not have been possible. I thank every one of the countless staff, students and visitors I was able to engage with, each of whom contributed to my intellectual enrichment as a scholar of American politics and foreign policy. I do single out former CEO Professor Bates Gill for his unqualified and ongoing support from the beginning, my associate PhD supervisor Dr David Smith, whose judgement and advice was impeccable every time, and, most especially, Craig Purcell, whose professionalism and friendship in equal measure always made the difference. I also thank the many other staff of the USSC who gave support in specific ways, including former CEO Professor Geoffrey Garrett, Associate Professor Brendon O’Connor, Dr Rebecca Sheehan, Dr Sarah Graham, Dr Gorana Grgic, Dr Nina Silove, Dr Thomas Adams, Dr Rob Rakove, Dr Niki Hemmer, Dr Marc-William Palen, Dr Benjamin Kahan, Dr Lizzie Ingleson, Dr Rodney Taveira, Dr Aaron Nyerges, Tom Switzer, Amelia Trial, Susan Beale, Max Halden, Jonathan Bradley, Nina Fudala, Nicole Phillips, Meghan Walters, Melissa Grah-McIntosh and Cindy Tang.

I give further thanks to the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney and its academic staff, whose doors were always open to me as a student and colleague, and continue to be so as an Associate of the Sydney Centre for International Law. My highest thanks are reserved for Professor Tim Stephens, who was enthusiastic about my research from the first day I informally ran it past him, to seeing me through as my PhD supervisor. His ongoing collegial support is deeply appreciated. The evolution of the book owes much to Professor Anthea Roberts of the Australian National University, who early on recognised complementarities in our thinking on comparative international law and has been supportive ever since, up to and including writing the foreword to this book. I also offer thanks to other colleagues and mentors in the international law world who have read over and provided comments on my developing ideas. These include, among others, Professors David Weisbrot, Fleur Johns, Ben Saul, Shirley Scott, Charlotte Ku, John Noyes, Harlan Cohen, Madeleine Morris and Associate Professor Douglas Guilfoyle. My final academic thanks are given to Professors Anthony Cassimatis of the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland and William Tow of the Australian National University, who, respectively, were my first teachers in public international law and American foreign policy and who conveyed a passion for the subjects that remains with me.

I thank the colleagues with whom I have worked as a legal practitioner and especially those in the Legal Division of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, under the leadership of then Senior Legal Advisor Katrina Cooper, where I was able to refine my first-hand understanding of the role and worldview of the international legal policymaker. I am particularly indebted to former Australian Senior Legal Advisor Richard Rowe, who provided such wise advice when making the difficult decision to leave the foreign ministry in order to complete this book. I also thank Justice Peter Applegarth of the Supreme Court of Queensland, for whom I had the honour of clerking and who continues to keep an eye over my career as one of his associate ‘children’.

I owe many thanks to the numerous former United States government officials who generously gave their time to answering my questions, both on and off the record. It was from these conversations with American international lawyers that I confirmed my sense of a genuine commitment to the ideal of the international rule of law, but one that diverged systematically from conceptions of global counterparts in ways that demanded investigation. These policymakers include, but are certainly not limited to, William Taft IV, John Bellinger III, Stephen Rapp, Edwin Meese III, Ben Rhodes, as well as Professors Michael Matheson, John Moore and Detlev Vagts. I also acknowledge the assistance of Professor Walter Russell Mead for discussing my adaptation of his foreign policy traditions to international legal scholarship.

Finally, I have been privileged in having so many magnificent friends and family in Berlin, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, New Zealand, the United States and beyond, who have spent so many years supporting my endeavours, and occasional misadventures, during the long years of writing this thesis and book. I am forever indebted to my parents Stephen and Elvira, who taught me from childhood to think critically about the world and always to recognise the perspectives of others. That lesson has been practised and refined ever since with my siblings Timothy, Phillip, Hugh and Astrid and, I hope one day, with my nieces and nephew Charlotte, Daniel, Vivienne and Ingrid. On behalf of all of them, the book is dedicated to my grandmothers, Chen Siu June and Rosa Elisabetta Jorgensen, née Caccioppoli, whose lives represent the sacrifice and promise that we all enjoy today. These were two strong women who could not have hailed from more different backgrounds, yet committed themselves to passing on the core values and respect for education that have allowed succeeding generations to experience privileges they never could in their own lifetimes.