America Is Retreating from Global Leadership, A Debate

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Summary

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States emerged from the Cold War as both powerful and ascendant. As the world's only surviving superpower, Amer...

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States emerged from the Cold War as both powerful and ascendant. As the world's only surviving superpower, America boasted a level of military and economic supremacy seldom seen before and a strong desire to lead what President George H. W. Bush (R, 1989-93) called "a new world order." But things have changed enormously in the past 30 years. With China's rise as an economic powerhouse, an aggressive Russia exercising greater influence across Eastern Europe, and American retrenchment in places like Afghanistan and Syria, the role of U.S. leadership is less clear today. President Donald Trump (R, 2017-21) pursued an "America First" policy that aimed to limit U.S. involvement overseas, but President Joe Biden (D) came into office in 2021 promising to "restore the soul of America." Many took that to mean he would seek to re-cement the United States as the preeminent global leader. But some argue that those days have passed and that we now live in a multilateral world in which no single nation can dominate international affairs. Three decades after the Cold War, is America retreating from global leadership?

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