The Biden administration has managed to rally large parts of the world to oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. The United States has persuaded most of its allies to act forcefully to punish Russia, and many others to at least provide aid to besieged Ukrainian forces and citizens. All this has helped to create a moment of unusual Western unity that could help restore and rebuild the rules-based international system currently under threat.

But these successes can still be squandered by America’s own unilateralism and pursuit of narrow self-interest.