A photograph moved across the Western wires with a caption in capital letters. "COUNTER US POWER," it read, above an image of the Kyrgyzstan president walking China's Xi Jinping past an honor guard in Bishkek, when they met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization...

For decades, one of the keys to Washington’s power has been its ability to use favorably inclined allies as force multipliers. Now, facing its first peer competitor in generations, Washington has been busily alienating pretty much everyone it can. This alienation can...