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Notes -
I'm not being obtuse when I ask: what value, exactly, does American international standing have?
Being able to get people to cooperate with you on economic, military, and political matters. We have neither the ability nor the interest to obtain everything we want by coercion, and the more we try the worse the case for working with us versus our rivals becomes. If you're going to start mashing the defect button just to prove you can, eventually your partners are going to look for someone more reliable. If you're going to start running around trying annex your neighbors, people are going to start forming alliances against you.
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Having allies do the bleeding and suffering while the US takes the spoils of war. That's the tried and tested American strategy for winning serious wars.
Having other countries comply with US sanctions and generally cooperate.
Avoiding unpleasant situations like having strategic resource imports cut off or sudden price hikes, though Trump doesn't seem to care much about this.
Getting to keep overseas bases in foreign countries.
American companies being allowed to get lucrative overseas contracts, merger approvals, market access.
Getting more generous terms in multilateral free trade agreements.
Diplomatic credibility. It helps diplomacy if its generally thought that America won't renege on agreements, being seen as trustworthy (though this has basically vanished).
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