The Guardian view on US leadership: war in the Middle East accelerates American decline | Editorial

The Biden administration has squandered the authority it rebuilt, but a second Trump term would be still more destructive

On Tuesday, as Israel sent troops into Lebanon, Iran fired almost 200 missiles at Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran that it “will pay”, the august magazine Foreign Affairs published the US secretary of state’s thoughts on rebuilding leadership. If he correctly diagnosed the issue – “A fierce competition is under way to define a new age in international affairs” – Antony Blinken’s assertions about the renewal of American authority were considerably less convincing.

Some have dated the end of the American century to Vietnam or the “war on terror”. But Donald Trump’s presidency quickened US decline. It wasn’t only Vladimir Putin who was emboldened. Though Mr Trump turned the screws on China, its increasing forcefulness in recent years has reflected not only its growing might and Xi Jinping’s leadership but also its perception of the US as a dwindling superpower. Other nations decided to hedge their geopolitical bets. Yes, the US is in a stronger position today than four years ago, but the erratic isolationism of the Trump administration is a shockingly low bar, and no one can erase its memory. Allies and rivals alike have drawn their conclusions about the long-term reliability of the US.

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