Last year, Donald Trump was a spectre haunting the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, in Davos. This year, he may be there in the flesh. If so, it will be an uncomfortable encounter. He rejects the tenets of the liberal international order promoted by his country over seven decades. These values also animate the WEF. They are what make it something more than just a forum for world’s rich and powerful.

As Princeton’s John Ikenberry argues in a recent article, the “US and its partners built a multi-faceted and sprawling international order, organised around economic openness, multilateral institutions, security co-operation and democratic solidarity”. This system won the cold war. That victory, in turn, promoted a global shift towards democratic politics and free-market economics.

Today, however, the liberal international order is sick. As Freedom in the World 2018,