As President Biden’s first term nears its halfway mark, many in the administration feel reasonably good about America’s position in the world. True, hopes of sidelining Russia so that the U.S. could focus on China undisturbed haven’t come to fruition. The expectation that relations with Iran would stabilize with a new administration willing to return to the nuclear deal proved equally wrong. And the president’s signature move—the withdrawal from Afghanistan that Mr. Biden forced through—was executed so poorly that it left a permanent mark on the team’s reputation.
But there is good news, too. Thanks to
war in Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance is stronger, more united and viewed as more critical to European security than at any time in the recent past. With Sweden and Finland applying for NATO membership and Germany buying F-35s, the Atlantic security community seems to have recovered its élan.
Relations with allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific also look strong. Japan is doubling its defense spending. The Quad (the U.S., India, Australia and Japan) continues to develop. For the first time ever, a South Korean president attended the NATO summit last June. President
Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
in the Philippines seems to value a deeper defense relationship with Washington.
The world’s democracies may be muddling along in their usual half-satisfactory way, but it looks a lot better than the car crashes that authoritarian regimes in Russia, China and Iran have been facing lately. Mr. Putin’s war, China’s economic and pandemic troubles, and Iran’s thuggish assault on its own people have taken the shine off the authoritarian model.
Neither American democracy nor the world capitalist order crashed in 2022. The usual chorus of voices predicting the imminent collapse of both has proved, yet again, to be premature. But the Biden administration would be ill-advised to pat itself on the back. If things are looking up for America, it isn’t because Team Biden is getting most things right. Things are looking good for America because our international power rests on such sturdy foundations that, within limits, other countries step up when America fumbles.
The global maritime system of commerce and security—built by the British in the 18th century, led by America…
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