Perhaps at no point in recent American history have so many citizens come to the conclusion that there is something profoundly and even unalterably wrong with our country.

Take for example, the widely cited embarrassment of Congressional approval ratings. Earlier this year, they had plummeted to a cringe-inducing all-time low of 10 percent. Or, perhaps, consider the Sinophobia that afflicts many Americans as they watch Chinese industries boom and Beijing come to play an increasingly prominent role in global geopolitics. In recent years, seemingly with particular visibility in the present election cycle, grim narratives of American decline and defeat are ubiquitous.

Not necessarily so, says Robert Lieber, the distinguished professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University. Lieber is the author of the recent work, Power and Willpower in the American…

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