Summit of the Americas: Biden’s leadership challenged in own backyard
After the debacle of last summer’s Afghanistan withdrawal, President Joe Biden and his team surprised many – not least Russia’s Vladimir Putin – with their dogged and effective leadership of international opposition to the war in Ukraine.
More recently, Mr. Biden turned his focus to China and the challenge he sees it posing to the rules-based and values-inspired international order. He hosted a gathering of leaders from Southeast Asian countries, then traveled to rock-solid Asian allies Japan and South Korea and participated in a summit of the Indo-Pacific “Quad” democracies: the United States, Japan, Australia, and India.
The point the White House aimed to demonstrate: that the U.S. retains the capacity and the moral authority to lead the world.
Yet the sense that U.S. global leadership is on a roll is now suffering
