"Great-Power Competition Is Now Back"

"European elections now shift the power balance between America and Russia in a way they haven't since the 1980s. In countries like the Philippines, they also shift the power balance between America and China. This could easily erode the fragile norm against secret interference on behalf of particular candidates that has emerged in the United States since the Cold War. Imagine an election in Italy or France between a pro-Russian political party and a pro-American one. I suspect that some of the hawks who are most upset about Russia's interference in recent American and European elections would support American interference to meet fire with fire. Trump himself may have little interest in meddling to defeat a pro-Russian party, since he seems to consider American and Russian interests closely aligned. But it's not hard to imagine him embracing Cold War–style political subversion in U.S. adversaries like Venezuela or Iran. Before becoming national-security adviser, John Bolton declared, 'We once had a capacity for clandestine efforts to overthrow governments. I wish we could get those back.'
"Washington's current burst of nationalist indignation, like the one that followed 9/11, is both vital and dangerous if not tempered by an awareness of America's own capacity for misdeeds."

Peter Beinart at The Atlantic warns that "historically, American meddling has done far more to harm democracy than promote it."