This “help me, help yourself” approach to international relations has yielded a major minus: America for perhaps the first time since World War II does not hold the moral high ground in dealing with an adversary it perceives a major menace to global peace and security.

It is important to recognize that America’s sustainability as a superpower has not simply manifested from its military prowess. Sure, there is that but every major power needs a virtuous ideology others can get behind, or at least rationalize their helplessness with, and Washington’s has been “moral exceptionalism.”