The Cold War was a struggle for global supremacy between two superpowers. It ended thirty years ago this month when the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin.

People are now asking whether a second Cold War has begun. It seems to me the answer is obvious. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has made it abundantly clear that global supremacy is his goal.

The tougher question: Do Americans have the will and the energy "to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out" as President John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address in 1961, described what then appeared to be an endless contest with the U.S.S.R.?

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For decades, Joe Biden was known as a man of the center-left, a normal guy, a regular Joe. His views have changed. I'm going to venture a guess as to why.

He concluded – or was persuaded – that history will not regard a moderate president as a consequential president, or a transitional president as a transformational president.

So, he made his choice, turning to Bernie Sanders and other socialist firebrands for direction. This would explain his nomination of Saule Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency, the official who oversees most of America's banks and is therefore one of the most powerful financial regulators in the world.

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For decades, the United Nations has wasted billions of dollars, achieved little, and tolerated misconduct – the Oil-for-Food scandal and sexual exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers to take just two examples.

The U.N.'s failures have not led to serious reform, and the U.N.'s misdeeds have not led to serious penalties. Nevertheless, its bank accounts are endlessly replenished, with American taxpayers contributing the lion's share.

But the transnational bureaucrats who run the organization do respond to some outside influences. In particular, China's rulers have been increasingly successfully at commandeering multilateral agencies to further their unilateral ambitions.

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At the United Nations Climate Summit (aka COP26) in Glasgow last week, President Biden declared that climate change is "the existential threat to human existence as we know it."

Based on that judgment, he plans to implement policies that will weaken America's national security and economy, as well as slow development in poor countries. Perhaps this question occurs to you: Is Mr. Biden's judgement correct?

Those arguing that it is not include Steven E. Koonin, who served as the senior scientist in the Department of Energy under President Obama. Mr. Koonin does not "deny" that the climate is changing or that human activity is influencing that change.

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Bernard-Henri Lévy is a philosopher, author, filmmaker, reporter, and bon vivant. Born in Algeria, the scion of a wealthy family (he owns a palace in Marrakech), he is French, Jewish, atheist, and a self-described "Baudelairean." (I don't know what that means either.)

His hair is graying but not yet gray, insouciantly long in the back. His suits are bespoke. His crisp white shirts have mandarin collars, with a few buttons left unbuttoned. At 72, he is slim and fit, as peripatetic and intrepid as ever.

In France, he is often referred to simply as BHL, and that's what I'll call him here since "Mr. Lévy" just doesn't sound right. That he is something of a self-promoter goes without saying, though I'm saying it anyway.

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