America's fickle commitments

Editor's note: Yu Ruo is a Beijing-based international affairs commentator. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

On July 22, a U.S. State Department spokesperson announced that the United States would withdraw from UNESCO, just two years after rejoining it, marking its third exit from the organization.

This time, the world greeted the news with calm as everyone has got used to America's habit of quitting international organizations.

Under the banner of "America First," the U.S. follows international rules and multilateral mechanisms selectively, embracing them when expedient and discarding them when not. Its list of withdrawals and breaches of agreements is getting longer and longer, with signed pacts casually torn up and international commitments discarded.

In early 2025, the U.S. once again withdrew from the Paris Agreement, saying its joining the agreement did "not reflect our country's values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives."

What does Trump's America want? In his own words: "We're going to drill, baby, drill," signaling a sharp reversal from his predecessor's environmental policies. The message is clear: Economic expansion takes priority, even at the expense of climate commitments.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Trump administration's budget proposes to cut overall UN funding by 87 percent, slashing both voluntary contributions and legally required dues, including peacekeeping and core budget payments.

In early 2025, the U.S. announced the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the termination of over 80 percent of its projects.

The U.S. has suspended funding to the World Health Organization and initiated a complete exit. It has also sanctioned the International Criminal Court over what it says are "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel."

Besides, the U.S. has been attempting to use sanctions to coerce other nations into picking sides, undermining multilateral cooperation.

Chanting the slogan "Make America Great Again" while repeatedly withdrawing from multilateral groupings is tantamount to building an America on shirked responsibilities and broken commitments. Such abandonment not only damages U.S. credibility but also erodes the foundations of the international order.

This has exacerbated the global trust crisis, leaving U.S. partners disheartened. America's erratic actions make it unpredictable and unreliable, even to its allies.

Europeans have expressed strong disappointment over the U.S. withdrawal from international institutions. EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra described Washington's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement as "a truly unfortunate development." France expressed regret over the U.S. decision to exit UNESCO and UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said it violated the fundamental principles of multilateralism.

Sustainable development has been hindered, causing great harm to some less developed nations. Under the Western model of long-term exploitation and refusal to impart self-sustaining skills, some developing countries have yet to establish mature social governance systems. They still rely on U.S. aid for basic food distribution, healthcare and social security.

With a single stroke, the U.S. government shut down most of its development programs, which directly threatens the survival and health of populations in the regions affected.

Cuts to UN funding have forced the organization to scale back its humanitarian aid plans, while the withdrawal from climate agreements jeopardizes global emission reduction goals, leaving dozens of developing countries facing food and medical shortages.

This is heightening the risk of geopolitical conflict, making the already volatile world even less stable. As an instigator of numerous global hot-spots, America is the greatest source of instability in the world. Shedding responsibility never fosters peace but only intensifies geopolitical risks.

A great power must act like one. Greatness lies not in size or might but in vision, altruism and accountability.

The serial withdrawals and breaches have revealed a selfish and shortsighted America, whose evasion of responsibility harms global interests and its own credibility. As the Atlantic said in a comment, "The United States is rapidly dismantling the world order that it built and maintained over the past 80 years."

A Pew Research Center survey of 24 nations found that more than half of the adult respondents in 19 countries expressed lack of confidence in Trump's leadership due to his administration's handling of world affairs. The shift from commitment to abandonment is a telling sign of America's decline.

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