Trend America First retreat lets China fill multilateral gaps in a post-American world

Summary

The report argues that strategies grounded in America First are paradoxically widening China's global influence. Washington has weakened its own diplomatic tools by hitting allies with reciprocal tariffs and secondary sanctions and by leaving several international bodies. Citing Posen, it describes a shift in the US role from insurer of foreign governments and world trade to a source of threat, marking entry into a post-American world. China, while avoiding head-on collision, is using the resulting gaps inside multilateral frameworks to reshape rules and institutions in its favour. The authors judge that this transition hurts America's closest allies more than China and erodes dollar centrality, US standard-setting power and foreign participation in US sanctions.