“My team is losing, battered and bruising./ I see the high-fives between the bad guys.” Taylor Swift’s “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” song is a critique of America’s domestic politics, but it could well be our theme song on the world stage today too, as many at home and abroad talk of America’s decline.

Some pundits and experts speak of a multipolar world in which many global powers hold sway. Others assert we’ve shifted to a world of two competing superpowers, with America countered by a rising China.

The one thing they seem to agree on is that the American century is over, with the United States no longer dictating the path of world events. This comes against a backdrop of a more violent world, with 2022 and 2023 seeing more conflict than any other years since the end of the Cold War, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. All of this threatens American, and global, security.

However, as Swift, a global megastar, has demonstrated, a setback need not precipitate a downfall. If anyone knows how to land an epic comeback, it’s her. She might not be an authority in foreign policy, but she understands relationships, and at its core, that’s what international affairs is all about.

While talent has been an essential factor to her success, that alone wouldn’t generate the kind of loyalty Swift inspires and the kind of influence she wields the world over. What separates her from her peers is authenticity, credibility and honesty. In a world where lesser pop stars feign perfection, Swift exposes her flaws and holds herself accountable for them. A savvy influencer, she knows this is what her audience wants: music that tells her real story.

[ Steve Chapman: How Taylor Swift restored my faith in humanity ]

This is what makes her the world’s biggest superstar today. If America wants to be the world’s biggest superstar state, it ought to lean into those values too.

To start, it takes some humility and recognition of the role we played in our own decline. We are the “Castles Crumbling” that Swift sings of. “Once, I was the great hope for a dynasty./ Crowds would hang on my words, and they trusted me./ Their faith was strong, but I pushed it too far./ … And here I sit alone, behind walls of regret/ Falling down like promises that I never kept.”

Many countries today won’t follow our lead because of the promises we haven’t kept. Take the climate crisis, in which the United States urges developing countries to give up fossil fuels, even as our........

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