For decades, the United States — and the West more broadly — stood as a shining example of liberal-democratic prosperity that much of the rest of the world sought to emulate.
But the cracks in Western political systems have lately begun to show, with Donald Trump’s presidency — which ended with the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a mob of his supporters — both highlighting and widening them.
The West’s decline is not inevitable. But, to safeguard their democracies and restore their global standing, Western countries must demonstrate that they possess both the awareness and political will to tackle their weaknesses head-on.