For decades, America presented itself to the world as the bastion of liberalism: a promoter of democracy, free markets, individual rights, and an international order based on shared rules. This role was consolidated after World War II, with US leadership in the creation of global institutions such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and NATO, and strengthened after the Cold War, when the “unipolar moment” seemed to have confirmed the triumph of the Western liberal model.
Lately, however, that liberal America seems to be in crisis. Growing political polarization and widespread economic inequality appear to be undermining social cohesion, while externally, an approach to trade relations based on tariffs and protectionism, strategic retreat, the rise of China, and the return of the logic of power have undermined the image of America as a moral leader and guarantor of the global order.
Thus, in an increasingly unstable world, the idea of a liberal America appears to be only a memory. Defending its principles – democracy, multilateralism, human rights – means trying to preserve an open, regulated, and cooperative global space, against the return of nationalism and authoritarianism.
