If the United States continues its retreat from economic leadership, it will impose
serious pain on the rest of the world?and on itself. Unless the Trump administration
chooses to launch a full-blown trade war, the consequences will not come immediately.
But a sustained U.S. withdrawal will inevitably make economic growth slower and less
certain. The resulting disorder will make the economic well-being of people around
the world more vulnerable to political predation and conflict than it has been in decades.