Roger Cohen joined The New York Times in 1990. He was a foreign correspondent for more than a decade before becoming acting foreign editor on Sept. 11, 2001, and foreign editor six months later. Since 2004, he has written a column for The International New York Times , formerly known as The International Herald Tribune . In 2009, he was named a columnist of The New York Times . His columns appear every Wednesday and Saturday. Raised in South Africa and England, Mr. Cohen is a naturalized American.

From Israel to North Korea, President Trump has said and done things previously viewed as unthinkable. Severe, perhaps irreversible, damage has been done to America’s standing, but the world has not gone over a cliff. Why?