After the end of the Cold War, humanitarian intervention became an important topic and called into question the traditional (Westphalian) sovereignty. According to John Ikenberry this fact favoures the emergence of a third (3.0) liberal international order.

In this paper I explain why humanitarian intervention conflicts with the Westphalian sovereignty but not with the sovereignty as responsibility and I argue that the UN Charter is compatible with a liberal international order because it protects this latter type of sovereignty.

Moreover I contend that an international order cannot be a liberal one if it accepts the Westphalian sovereignty so that if the international order 3.0 would be established it could be, in fact, the first liberal international order.