New Long-Form Essay in Foreign Analysis Magazine: The World Must Be Just

I’m pleased to share my latest long-form essay, The World Must Be Just: The Wilsonian Mission Never Ends, published in Foreign Analysis.

The essay examines the enduring tension between moral leadership and power politics in American foreign policy, a struggle rooted in the belief that lasting global order depends on law, justice, and shared values rather than coercion alone. While the United States played a central role in building the liberal international order through institutions, alliances, and development, its credibility has been weakened by persistent contradictions, including selective application of human rights, failed interventions, tolerance of abuses by strategic partners, and democratic erosion at home.

In a multipolar international system, these inconsistencies have become a strategic vulnerability. Rivals increasingly exploit gaps between American rhetoric and practice, undermining U.S. influence in ways that no military constraint could achieve. The essay argues that American leadership ultimately endures not through coercion, but through credibility, and that restoring it requires a reimagined liberalism grounded in humility, consistency, and principled partnership.

At a moment when global power is fragmenting and international norms are under strain, The World Must Be Just makes the case that moral coherence is not an idealistic luxury, but a strategic necessity.