For over five years, she has been the global face of a different kind of leadership. But when she resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister Thursday, Jacinda Ardern’s face looked gaunter and more drawn than usual, revealing the strain of having governed the country through the Christchurch shooting and the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was all supposed to be behind Brazil—the fears of a post-election crisis that would undermine the country’s democracy. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had defeated Jair Bolsonaro in October’s election and been sworn into office. Brazil and the world breathed a sigh of relief for the country’s democracy. And then came Sunday.
One of the dangers of a U.S. foreign policy consensus is that once it’s formed, there are enormous market incentives for analysts in Washington to formulate smart-sounding ways to operationalize it, rather than to question it. We see all of these dynamics on display now when it comes to U.S. policy on China.