As the White House fumbles with its response to the country鈥檚 most disruptive mass movement since the Vietnam War and U.S. society reflects on the agonizing problems of race relations, many overseas observers will interpret these events as a further sign of American decline. They likely expect an introspective and divided U.S. to withdraw from world affairs. This is a mistake.
There are, of course, the old, familiar questions about Donald Trump鈥攂ut for many world leaders they鈥檙e not the ones on most Americans鈥� minds. Men like Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping don鈥檛 particularly care about the president鈥檚 views on minorities or the fine points of American democracy. They don鈥檛 see the U.S. as a global avatar of democracy on whose success or failure rest the hopes of suffering humanity, nor do they measure Mr. Trump by his success or failure at bringing the U.S. closer to its deepest values and its highest ideals. They and many others want to know what the president wants, how effective he will be at getting it, how long he will last, and what will come after him.
Similarly, they are less interested in whether these protests mark a new, higher stage in America鈥檚 long struggle to overcome the racial legacy of an unhappy past than in how the turmoil will affect U.S. actions abroad.
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