Conventional defenders of the Western world order respond by touting its commitment to universal values such as human rights and the fight against climate change. The current world order may, they acknowledge, be historically rooted in Western imperial power, but as an “empire of values,” the Western world order deserves the support of everyone who cares about humanity’s future.

Unfortunately, the West’s increasingly “woke” values agenda is not as credible or as popular as liberals hope. President Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week reminds the world of the limits on Western commitments to human rights. Many values dear to the hearts of Western cultural leaders (LGBTQ rights, abortion on demand, freedom of speech understood as allowing unchecked Internet pornography) puzzle and offend billions of people around the world who haven’t kept up with the latest hot trends on American campuses. Attempts by Western financial institutions and regulators to block financing for fossil-fuel extraction and refining in developing countries enrage both elites there and the public at large.

Moreover, the liberal West’s new, post-Judeo-Christian values agenda divides the West. Culture wars at home don’t promote unity overseas. If Mr. Biden, with the support of the European Parliament, makes abortion on demand a key element of the values agenda of the world order, he is more likely to weaken American support for Ukraine than to unite the world against Mr. Putin.

The moral and political confusion of the contemporary West is the secret weapon that the leaders of Russia and China believe will bring the American world order to its knees.