Condoleezza Rice, who was secretary of state and national security adviser to president George W. Bush, wrote a compelling essay in Foreign Affairs: “The Perils of Isolationism.” Her similarly persuasive subtitle was “The World Still Needs America — and America Still Needs the World.” Isolation has never been the answer to U.S. security or prosperity. The last attempt in the 1920s and ’30s triggered the Great Depression and contributed to World War II. Rice asserts that the world today is more dangerous than during the Cold War with multiple adversaries co-operating to joust against the U.S. and its allies. Principal challenges come from China and Russia, both abetted by the rogue states of Iran and North Korea — four countries with a common cause: “to undermine and replace the U.S.- led international system that they detest.”