During Saturday’s Miss America show, which probably had higher ratings than in a while, and which was as its most transparently ridiculous, one of the final questions asked of the contestants was something like, “How can America improve its reputation in the world?” [The question itself belies a lot. Our reputation is important, sure, but it's more important to recall the virtues of our nation and live them more fully. Do that, and the reputation will follow.]

But it’s a question that the left has kept asking, and that’s what this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine is all about. Parag Khanna asks us to imagine what it will be like in eight years:

It is 2016, and the Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Barack Obama administration is nearing the end of its second term. America has pulled out of Iraq but has about 20,000 troops in the independent state of Kurdistan, as well as warships anchored at Bahrain and an Air Force presence in Qatar. Afghanistan is stable; Iran is nuclear. China has absorbed Taiwan and is steadily increasing its naval presence around the Pacific Rim and, from the Pakistani port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea. The European Union has expanded to well over 30 members and has secure oil and gas flows from North Africa, Russia and the Caspian Sea, as well as substantial nuclear energy. America’s standing in the world remains in steady decline.

That paragraph right there made me want to stop reading, but I kept on. Khanna offers five ways for the next president to solve the problem. Here they are in summa:

1. Be a diplomat. Stop talking about “American interests” and “American values” and talk of global interests and values. We know you like America. You live here. You’re the president. Be nice to your global audience. [This is a giant rule of good persuasion.]

2. Reorganize the State Department to look like the Pentagon. Better communication.

3. Send citizen diplomats around to the world, “spreading values and winning loyalty.” This includes Foreign Service officers. Missionaries of a kind. “We need a Peace Corps 10 times its present size, plus student exchanges, English-teaching programs and hands-on job training overseas – with corporate sponsorship.”

4. “[M]ake the global economy work for us.” Bring Asian money here.

5. “[C]onvene a G-3 of the Big Three. But don’t set the agenda; suggest it. These are the key issues among which to make compromises and trade-offs: climate change, energy security, weapons proliferation and rogue states [...] A Western change of tone could make China sweat. Superpowers have to learn to behave, too.”