“American leadership is what holds the world together,” insisted U.S. President Joe Biden last week in a speech to the U.S. public.
His Oval Office address sought to explain his support for Israel and Ukraine and to rally his audience behind him. Biden couched those efforts not as a choice, but as a responsibility. The language — and the moral sensibility that employs it — has long gripped the most senior representatives of U.S. politics.
The accuracy of that characterization faces a growing challenge, however, and its utility as an animating force in U.S. politics is declining as a consequence. American politicians and the public must recognize and acknowledge the difference between myth and reality, and develop a new guide for diplomatic engagement.