In 2001, he joined Georgetown University as the Peter F. Krogh Professor of Geopolitics and Global Justice in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

[5] In a Foreign Affairs article titled "The Rise of China and the Future of the West", Ikenberry suggests strengthening and re-investing in the existing institutions and rules of U.S.-led western order.

President Woodrow Wilson possessed the power to set the terms of peace, and the manner in which the post-war order was constructed.

Great Britain and France were worried about America's preponderance of power, and sought to tie the United States to the continent.

Ultimately, Woodrow Wilson's envisioned order encountered major obstacles, including the failure of the United States to join the League of Nations.

[9] Once again, leaders from the United States attempted to leverage this powerful position and create a stable order that would serve to benefit their nation for decades to come.

It was believed that the closed economic regions which had existed before the war had led to worldwide depression and at least in part contributed to the start of the conflict.

The region also became a staging ground for the Cold War, and building a strong West Germany was seen as an important step in balancing against the Soviet Union.

In the end, the United States created its desired order through a series of security, economic, and financial multilateral institutions, including NATO and the Marshall Plan.

The Bretton Woods system meeting in 1944 laid down the monetary and trade rules that facilitated the opening and subsequent flourishing of the world economy.

He says that system with the institutions that were built around rules and norms of nondiscrimination and market openness, provides low barrier of economic participation and high potential benefits.