The author, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, writes:

• People have laid down their lives for love, freedom, justice, the fatherland and more. But nobody has ever died clutching the banner of the Rules-Based International Order. It’s time to junk that cliche, and replace it with something more fitting.
• That’s not only because the term is an Orwellian linguistic atrocity with all the emotive oomph of a Powerpoint slide. It’s also a shibboleth that, when used by American diplomats in particular, makes US foreign policy look hypocritical, from the Middle East to Africa, Asia and beyond.
• Biden and his diplomats talk up the rules-based international order so much that Stephen Walt at the Harvard Kennedy School, a scholar in the hard-nosed “realist” tradition, has mocked the turn of phrase as a “job requirement.”
• The world is skeptical about this American shtick, especially in Africa, Asia and South America, where countries are feeling — and often resisting — pressure by Washington to align with the West against Russia and China.
• My advice to Biden and other Western leaders is to send out a staff memo: Drop the rules-based international order in all speechifying, and instead pledge fealty to international law. Then hold Russia, China and Iran accountable to that standard — but also Israel and, yes, even the US when necessary.

Read the full article on Bloomberg's website.

Opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, unless otherwise stated. Photo by The White House shared under a US Government works license.