Robert Madsen is a smart guy. A renowned economist who’s been affiliated with MIT and Stanford, he regularly advises investment groups, businesses and government agencies on geopolitical issues.

We agree more than we disagree on such matters, but he is also a competitive weightlifter, so I proceed gingerly when we differ. That resolve is being tested as we debate the debacle in Afghanistan.

Madsen, like many analysts and observers, is convinced that U.S. credibility in the world has been badly wounded. This isn’t just a function of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rather, he links that mess with the refusal to do more when Russia annexed Crimea and acquiescence to China’s crushing of Hong Kong. Throw in Washington’s rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, China’s growing influence via the Belt and Road Initiative, its growing presence in international forums and organizations, the ceding to Moscow of the traditional U.S. leadership role in the Middle East, Syria in particular, and he sees “a larger pattern: three presidencies in a row that were introspective and skeptical of international cooperation.”