India, Nov. 9 -- Shortly after the Democratic Party won back the House and Senate in the US midterm elections, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced, "America is back." After an election that saw the Democrats not only retake the two chambers of Congress by wide margins but also win in states long considered Republican strongholds - including Kansas, Texas, and South Carolina - Jeffries can credibly declare that his party is back. But for the country's allies, the question isn't whether America is back. It's what is America back to, and for how long.

I've written extensively about the rise of a G-Zero world, where the US has stepped back from the international order it created, with no nation or group of nations willing and a...