America's Retreat from Multilateral Engagement

Since the end of the cold war, the United States has demonstrated a growing willingness to act alone and to opt out of multilateral initiatives. Whether tiring of its international obligations, preoccupied with domestic concerns, or tempted to exploit its hegemony, the country has in a number of prominent instances withdrawn from collective initiatives, demanded exemptions from global rules, shirked commitments to international organizations, or extended its domestic law extraterritorially.