NEW YORK - American global leadership faces a crisis, not of economic vitality, diplomatic prowess, or military strength but of legitimacy, reported Foreign Affairs on Monday.

"Around the world, polls and interviews show that publics and elites in countries that consider themselves US allies harbor doubts about the state and direction of American democracy," said the report.

"They no longer see it as a model, and they worry whether the American political system can still produce trustworthy outcomes," it noted.

"Such sentiments are cause for alarm," it said. In the past, the US image abroad rose and fell depending on who was in the White House or what actions the United States was taking overseas, but views about American democracy remained steady, albeit less positive than many Americans might have supposed.

"Now, that is starting to change. Behind the constantly fluctuating popularity of US presidents, there is a steady decline in the international assessment of the strength of the US political system," it added.