The stage is set for a fiery clash between President Trump and more than 140 world leaders this week at the 73rd U.N. General Assembly. The U.N. system is a signal legacy of the U.S.-led post-World War II rules-based order, but increasingly the two are taking divergent paths.

The bureaucratic workings of the U.N. should give Americans pause. Countries like Saudi Arabia that jail women right-to-drive activists are on the U.N. Commission responsible for promoting gender equality; and Syria, suspected of using sarin gas on its own people, was allowed to preside over the U.N. conference responsible for banning chemical weapons.