America is Back! - but not if nation remains weak and divided

US President Joe Biden has sent a clear message to the world, and in particular to America's international allies, by declaring last month that "America is Back!"

And, indeed, after four years during which former president Donald Trump, carrying the "America First" flag, replacing Washington's traditional internationalist agenda with an isolationist and protectionist foreign and trade policies, America's partners across the Pacific and the Atlantic responded with a sigh of relief to President Biden's election and to the dramatic pledge he has made.

Ex-president Trump was not only pursuing policies that ran contrary to the multilateralist direction of his predecessors in office that raised questions about American commitments to its security and trade agreements, including by withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Accord and revoking the international nuclear deal with Iran. Mr Trump poisoned America's relationship with even old Western allies like Canada and Germany, kow-towing to authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and allying with populist and nationalist movements around the world.