The G-20: Another Vacuous Meet-and-Greet - Note for a discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United."

Walter Russell Mead, Wall Street Journal

Image from article, with caption:At the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 8

Excerpt:

Foreigners see a beleaguered American president, a press in full Watergate mode, and a public that is weary of engagement overseas. Across the globe, America’s competitors are thinking about how they can use this moment to advance their own agendas. America’s allies wonder whether they can continue to count on the U.S. for their security. America’s adversaries and potential adversaries are mulling how U.S. weakness can best be exploited.

This combination of American disunity [JB emphasis] and growing world instability, not the language of the G-20 final communiqué, is driving world history today. ...