Never in the years since the Cold War has the United States looked less like a leader of the world and more like the head of a faction — reduced to defending its preferred side against increasingly aligned adversaries

The United States needs to do more than merely avoid the most spectacular blunders of old: It must make a new place for itself in global affairs

For decades, collective European self-defense was merely an aspiration. Today, the time to realize this goal seems to be at hand.