One of President Biden's most specific foreign policy commitments is to convene a global summit on democracy in his first year in office. The purpose of the meeting was to make a public statement against the wave of authoritarianism and populism that Mr. Trump's presidency has seen, Mr. Biden and his advisers believe, threaten to sweep away Western political values.
In the days since Mr Biden's election, however, America's own democracy has faltered.
In early January, a group of Trump supporters stormed Congress to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. Next week, the Senate will begin its second impeachment trial against President Trump. Republicans in Congress are ready to cause legislative gridlock by blocking every piece of Biden's agenda.
Foreign adversaries sense that US democracy is dysfunctional, if not completely broken. They cheered and said the US had no right to tell other countries what to do.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the International affairs committee of Russia's Federation Council (the upper house of parliament), wrote on Facebook after the riots in the US Congress: "The US no longer sets the course and therefore loses all right to set the course. What is more, they lose the right to impose their course on others.