From the article:
[In other words, the world has been the way the world has been these past 80 years because America was the way America was: a superpower ready to let other countries take some advantage of it in trade, because previous presidents understood that if the world grew steadily richer and more peaceful, and if the United States just continued to get the same slice of global G.D.P. — about 25 percent — it would still prosper handsomely because the total pie would grow steadily larger. Which is exactly what happened.
The world has been the way the world has been because China brought more people out of poverty faster than any other country in history, largely on the back of a giant, relentless export engine that took advantage of the U.S.-engineered global free trade system.
The world has been the way the world has been because the United States had the good fortune to be bordered by two friendly democracies, Canada and Mexico. Together the three nations wove a network of supply chains that made them all richer, no matter that many goods manufactured in North America could have a label saying, “Made by America, Mexico and Canada together.”
The world has been the way the world has been thanks to the alliance between the United States and both the other members of NATO and the European Union, which, with U.S. help, have kept the peace in Europe from the end of World War II right up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This vast, prosperous trans-Atlantic partnership has been a pillar of global growth and security.]
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/opinion/trump-tariffs-us-security-stability.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare