It has become a truism that the global order is weakening and American power in particular is on the wane. But what should or can be done to arrest the decline? Should the U.S. now step back, having failed to spread liberal democracy to Russia, China and the Middle East?

In a new book, Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution, a Washington based think tank, argues that although a new era of increased competition between powers is here to stay, the United States still has a special role to play on the world stage.

On today's podcast he talks to Chris Dooley about the nature of the global balance of power and how it is evolving, what motivates Vladimir Putin, the future of the European Union and the special risk posed by Donald Trump's presidency.

All Measures Short of War is published by Yale.