What British historian Eric Hobsbawm once called the “short 20th century” was thought to have ended in 1989 with the Cold War victory of the United States and its allies. Yet today, the U.S. is faced with an increasingly powerful and assertive axis of China, Russia, Iran, and their proxies, united by a shared aim of upending American and free world values and replacing them with what Xi Jinping calls a “new world order.” This axis’s efforts, be they economic, political, or military, and whether they are directed against the U.S. or further afield, all aim toward this end.

Indeed, at the heart of today’s geopolitical challenges is a contest over ideologies — the norms and values that, for Americans, have defined us as a people. And, for the wider free world, at stake are the global governance ideals that have, however imperfectly, upheld the sovereignty of states and the dignity of individuals.