The tumultuous U.S. departure from Afghanistan undermined international credibility in the United States as a guarantor of global stability. Allies and adversaries are wondering about American staying power. They may even view the Afghanistan defeat as a turning point, a signal collapse of a will to hegemony, analogous to the British abandonment of any role “east of Suez” in 1968, when the sun finally did set on the Empire.
Such doubts about the American security umbrella did not arise exclusively from the chaos at the Kabul airport. Anxiety about the impact of political neo-isolationism also fuels concerns — hence, the persistence of French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for strategic autonomy, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s speculations about acquiring nuclear weapons, and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s outreach to China.