US made every strategic challenge worse in the past year. America's allies should wonder if an overstretched superpower will be able to come to their rescue in a moment of need, said Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, in an article published in Financial Timeson Jan 8, 2023.

According to the article, the chief source of trouble is the US-China tensions. Although a war between the two countries holds alow probability, itis no less likely than a return to Obama-era "engagement", especially after Biden's decision to cut off Chinese access to advanced semiconductors. House speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei also sparked a cross-Strait crisis.

Meanwhile, US administration used the conflict in Ukraine as an excuse to surge roughly 40,000 US troops into Europe in 2022 and championed the expansion of NATO. On top of everything, efforts to restore the nuclear accord with Iran fell apart in 2022.

The article mentioned that now America's adversaries have increased in numbers and gained in strength. The burdens and dangers will continue to mount unless the US makes difficult strategic adjustments.

TheUS should pull back from the Middle East,shrink the burden from European allies and seek competitive coexistence with China. "Washington may think its global leadership is back, but if it keeps trying to defend everything, America will end up defending nothing", said the article.