2021 Does American Leadership in the World Still Matter?

U.S. leadership in world affairs has been a given for most of the period since World War II. Even after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. was assumed to be the predominant if not the only superpower. A combination of overreach and ambivalence, however, began to call this position into question, not least among the American public. The Trump presidency amplified and acted on these doubts to redefine how and when the U.S. would act consistent with the slogan “America First.”

The Biden administration has affirmed its willingness to reengage with the world in the hope of reestablishing America’s preeminence internationally. But how likely is this to happen, given sharp domestic political divisions, the damage done to longstanding alliances over the course of the Trump administration, and persistent questions about whether the US. is in decline? Can the world assume that the Biden administration will restore a measure of bipartisanship to American foreign policy that recommits the U.S. to global re-engagement? Can Washington accomplish this in a way that strikes a better balance between engagement and over-commitment?