The United States is waking up to our new geopolitical normal—a world of multipolar competition as American power stagnates and others powers rise. We need to discard encrusted foreign policy illusions and go back to basics.

Gustav Hilger, a German strategic mastermind during World War II, remains almost totally unknown. But he exerted enormous influence on the U.S. architects of the post-war liberal international order, who proclaimed liberal values, but operated in a much more pragmatic manner behind the scenes.