The World We Cannot Control

Americans are becoming more anxious about US foreign policy and much more skeptical that we can do anything much to affect the rest of the world:

The public not only doubts that U.S. foreign policy is working, but they’re increasingly skeptical about whether anything can turn the situation around. The public shows an increasing loss of faith in many policy options, while public approval in almost every policy area has declined.

This decline in confidence seems to occur whether the proposed strategy is “hawkish” or “dovish,” whether it involves "hard power" or "soft power" or whether or not the public put much stock in it in the first place. In some cases, confidence has declined slowly over two years, while in others it has dropped sharply in the past six months.

I know the feeling.