As Donald Trump’s second term unfolds, his administration has adopted an increasingly forceful approach to foreign policy — from threatening allies and pursuing territorial expansion to unlawful military actions stretching from the western hemisphere and the Caribbean to the Middle East, culminating in an escalating and illegal war against Iran waged alongside Israel. In response, mainstream foreign policy debates have increasingly revolved around two existential questions.

The first question is: What is next for the rules-based international order? Those asking it are mostly members of the neoliberal political leadership class, who argue that Trump’s actions have shattered the pretense that the postwar order still functions as it once did — a recognition that Prime Minister Mark Carney captured in a widely discussed speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he declared that the world is experiencing “a rupture, not a transition.” Others on the Left note that this is always how the order was meant to function and has functioned, underscoring continuity rather than a sharp rupture.

As the 2028 presidential contest begins to beckon, and Democratic Party leading lights test messages on book tours and media appearances, the second question that keeps getting asked is: Does Israel have a right to exist? The discourse is sharpened not only by the current war but also by shifting sentiment within the party’s base, where polling and public rhetoric show growing awareness of and support for Palestinian self-determination.