Our national security experts confront many threats to order and stability in the world. In this column, I touch on a few of the most urgent of them.

We see a new tone in diplomatic affairs between the United States and China, a real change in how both sides view the relationship. Top officials now talk openly about competition – much more so than a few years ago.

The relationship between the United States and China is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. When it goes smoothly, global tensions are low. When the relationship hits the rocks, tensions rise, not only between the U.S. and China but throughout the world.

The basic premise of American global policy, at least since the end of World War II, has been that we should work to build a peaceful international order, conducive to democratic expansion and multilateral cooperation. We believed our security needs were best met through a rules-based order based on shared principles, including respect for national… Read more »

Without a doubt, America’s global image has diminished in recent years. We once were preeminent as an international leader, but those days are no more. While the presidency of Donald Trump brought U.S. prestige to a low point, there are things we can do to restore our global leadership.

Americans often disagree, sometimes forcefully, about what our role in the world should be. From my perspective there is a lot more consensus on the topic than initially meets the eye.

Making effective public policy takes more than good ideas and familiarity with the issues. It is not easy, especially when many people have lost trust in government and in each other, but it can be done with attention to time-honored characteristics of good governance.

With a new administration taking office, it is tempting to put the disturbing events of Jan. 6 behind us. But we should not dismiss – or fail to learn from – what happened when the president of the United States incited his followers to storm the Capitol and try to overturn a lawfully decided election.

President-elect Joe Biden will take office vowing to bridge partisan differences and unite Americans. It will not be easy. Biden will have to work with a Congress that is deeply divided, reflecting divisions among the American people that have grown stronger and more intense.

Pundits have been commenting on the Decline of the West since the German philosopher Oswald Spengler published a book by that title in 1918. The Western world may not be as dominant as it once was, but its decline has been exaggerated.