Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy professor at Johns Hopkins, lists contenders for power faced by the United States today. He names them as Russia, China, and Iran. (“The New Containment; Handling Russia, China, and Iran,” Foreign Affairs; March/April 2019)

He suggests we apply the lesson we learned so well in our dealings with the former Soviet Union. We persevered in that contest through containment. Thankfully, though we engaged in smaller wars on the planet, wisely or unwisely, we never engaged the Soviet Union in an all-out war that no doubt would have devastated the planet.

Our problems differ with each one of today’s contenders. Russia nibbles at countries close by like Georgia and Ukraine. China wants hegemony in her area of the world, but the U.S. and China are huge trading partners. Our interest in Iran is limited to containment of conflict in the Middle East.

Mandelbaum did not mention North Korea. That county exemplifies the dangers of rogue nations developing nuclear weapons.

His reasoning involves working with allies, not abandoning organizations like NATO. Nor should we abandon allies like Japan and South Korea and Taiwan.

The widespread use of sanctions against North Korea is one example of smart power. Many nations signed on to the sanctions because of the obvious danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of someone like Kim Jong-un.

The rise in populism endangers our dependence on allies. It would be unwise for populists to scrap the global role of the United States in the world, especially since the current setup calls, not for military action, but careful tuning of U.S. partnerships with allies.

Cautions Mandelbaum: “Should the country turn decisively away from its global role and allow the revisionist challenges to advance unchecked, however, Americans’ happy detachment from the world beyond their borders may disappear. And by the time they realize what they need to protect, it may be too late to do so without great difficulty and high cost.”