The United States thrives in a stable international environment and amid substantial domestic unity. In 2024, it seems folly to wish for either. Multiple foreign crises persist, ranging from wars in Europe and the Middle East to the China challenge. A looming presidential election promises to further divide Americans.
Yet dealing with difficult international challenges requires broad unity. When it comes to that, it’s performance, not pleas or promises, that will make the difference.
The global threats are daunting. Russia is ready to exploit Western exhaustion toward supporting Ukraine. Hamas’s assault on Israel, the brutal war in the Gaza Strip, and terrorist attacks by Iranian proxies threaten to spark widespread violence across the Middle East. China seeks to absorb Taiwan and contest U.S. influence everywhere. Kim Jong Un’s whim could throw the Korean Peninsula into crisis, Iran is closing in on a nuclear weapon, and Venezuela’s leaders talk openly about annexing neighboring territory.
Yet as difficult as they are, the United States, with its power, wealth, geography, and values—and with its friends and allies—can manage these challenges. Washington possesses everything necessary to succeed, even in a tumultuous world, so long as it remains politically united enough to marshal these advantages in common purpose.
A recent poll showed that about twice as many Americans believe that foreign policy should be a top priority in 2024 than was the case a year ago. Other surveys, however, show deep skepticism about the United States’ global leadership, the basic competence of government, and the value of international engagement. A Pew Center study found that just 4 percent of American adults express real confidence in the U.S. political system, and a mere 16 percent say that “they trust the federal government always or most of the time.” In the 2023 Chicago Council Survey, 57 percent of Americans support an active role for the United States in world affairs, a decline from 70 percent in 2018—with the drop most evident among Republicans. A divided, inward-looking nation will make navigating global challenges even more difficult.
That is why foreign adversaries work to increase our domestic polarization and to undermine Americans’ trust in their own institutions. From 2021 through 2022, a Chinese state-led cybercampaign targeted the systems of U.S. state governments. China also attempted to influence U.S. political processes during the 2022 midterm elections to a greater extent than ever before. The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence suggested in a December 2022 report that Beijing has grown bolder in its interference attempts in part because it saw a greater chance to exploit divisive issues such as abortion and gun control. Russia has infamously tried to shake public confidence in democratic elections worldwide—including by interfering in U.S. presidential elections. Iran sought to influence the 2020 elections by sending fake, threatening emails to voters. As our adversaries well know, a fractured United States is a weaker United States.
The impact of political deadlock on U.S. foreign policy is vivid in the holdup of aid to Ukraine. A majority of Democrats and Republicans in Congress support providing assistance, but the aid has stalled because of deep differences over border security. The fourth five-year reauthorization of PEPFAR, or the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has become embroiled in broader debates over abortion. Our divisive domestic politics can endanger even lifesaving programs, such as PEPFAR, that enjoy broad bipartisan support.
Most proposed remedies call on political leaders to forge common cause through a combination of pleas and promises. They should explain to the public, it has been said, the disproportionate benefits generated by U.S. global leadership and the potentially dire consequences that would attend its abandonment. They should pledge to unify the country, promise to work across the political aisle, and emphasize that, whatever our differences are at home, they pale in comparison to those with our foreign adversaries.
Repeated explanations help, but such rhetorical exhortations make up just part of the answer. Forging the national unity necessary for an effective foreign policy requires focusing on the home front as well as showing—not simply claiming—that our political system works for the American people.
In recent years, many Americans have felt victimized by globalization, threatened by illegal immigration, disrespected by privileged elites, and abandoned by their politicians. Americans worry about the affordability of health care and the education of their children, suffer the effects of inflation, and wonder about job security amid technological change. They see unsustainable debt levels, rising international competition, and economic policies that seem to place disproportionate burdens on unprivileged segments of the population. Americans who doubt whether the nation’s democratic system works for them have grounds for concern.
Such domestic problems—illegal immigration, chaos on the southern border, the unsustainability of entitlement spending, debt levels that threaten fiscal stability, and more—have been with us for decades. In many cases, the solutions have also been clear. Yet our political system remains unable to enact sustainable, bipartisan solutions.
What the United States needs is an economic system that provides inclusive growth and does not leave people behind. It needs border security, combined with legal immigration that can be an economically revitalizing force. It needs political leaders to make the hard decisions necessary to bring long-term government expenditures—including on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—in line with revenues. It needs a plan for overall fiscal stability. And it needs to rebuild a strong national defense.
None of these are impossible tasks. If our leaders take such steps, they can begin to restore Americans’ faith in their institutions and pull the country back together.
Today’s international challenges threaten the security, prosperity, and freedom of the American people. But Americans will naturally shy from a focus on overseas problems until their leaders address real needs at home. Progress on these issues can instill greater confidence that policymakers can act effectively abroad. The path to a more globally engaged United States runs through better domestic governance.
This country’s founders believed that a system based on democratic principles better provides for domestic security and prosperity than any other. By showing progress on the long-standing issues that concern Americans at home, our leaders can restore people’s confidence that this is so.
That, in turn, would help to renew public support for U.S. engagement abroad. It’s possible. Even in 2024.