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Turkey has been a vital ally of the United States since World War II. It fields NATO’s second-largest army, after America’s, and anchors the alliance’s eastern flank. It hosts military bases that are central to American operations in the Middle East, including Incirlik, where some 50 tactical nuclear weapons are stationed, and serves as a bridge between the Muslim world and the West. After Recep Tayyip Erdogan took office in 2003 and began reforms, Turkey seemed on course to becoming a model Muslim democracy.

In recent years, however, the relationship between Turkey and the United States has deteriorated dramatically. Mr. Erdogan has violated basic civil liberties and other democratic norms, is buying a Russian air defense system and is now holding Americans hostage.

Given Mr. Erdogan’s anti-American hostility as well as mounting security concerns, the Trump administration should give serious consideration to removing the United States nuclear weapons in Turkey.

Wait, Turkey is holding Americans hostage ?

Mr. Erdogan, who heads an Islamic political party, has long used America as a whipping boy to divert attention from his political problems. He reached a new low last year by falsely implicating Washington in a failed coup and using a post-coup roundup of alleged enemies to jail about a dozen Americans , some Turks who work at American diplomatic missions in Turkey, foreign nationals and more than 50,000 other Turks. The recent arrest of a Turkish citizen employed by the American consulate in Istanbul heightened tensions, leading both sides to stop issuing non-immigrant visas this week and to curtail travel between the two countries.

What are these people accused of, exactly?

Most of them are accused of ties to the Islamist cleric Fethullah Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania who Turkey says orchestrated the aborted coup. They face long prison sentences.

Legitimate governments have a perfect right to defend against illegal actions like a coup. Still, Mr. Erdogan’s dragnet is indefensible, and the Turkish leader has steadily eroded the rule of law. Last month, he acknowledged what many feared, that he considers the American detainees to be potential bargaining chips in efforts to force the extradition of Mr. Gulen. This is not how allies behave.

Why not agree to extradite Mr. Gulen?

Under American law, there are rules for extradition. The United States is asking Turkey to present credible evidence that Mr. Gulen committed a crime. Turkish authorities have not done that, despite repeated American requests.

Hasn’t President Trump endorsed Mr. Erdogan?

Mr. Trump has a disturbing fondness for authoritarian leaders like Mr. Erdogan, whom he praised as a friend who gets “high marks” for “running a very difficult part of the world.” However, along with Vice President Mike Pence and 78 members of Congress, Mr. Trump has appealed for the release of some of the Americans — with no apparent effect.

Are there other issues?

Yes. After the recent suspensions of non-immigrant visas shook Turkey’s financial markets on Monday, the two sides signaled a willingness to ease tensions, but an American official warned, “We haven’t hit bottom yet.”

Mr. Erdogan is worried about the impending trial in the United States of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold dealer accused of violating sanctions on Iran, because he is connected to a corruption scandal that almost brought down Mr. Erdogan’s government in 2013. The Turkish leader is further incensed by America’s indictment of 15 of his personal bodyguards after a brawl with protesters in May during his visit to Washington. The two countries are at odds over American support for Kurdish fighters in Syria; Turkey considers those fighters to be terrorists allied with a Kurdish group in Turkey that has waged an insurgency there for 30 years. Washington is concerned that Turkey is distancing itself from NATO, as evidenced by its pro-Russia tilt in the Syrian war and its bid to buy a Russian missile defense system that cannot be integrated with NATO’s defenses.

Why can’t the U.S. simply kick Turkey out of NATO?

NATO has no provision for that, and besides, the United States wants Turkey to stay. Having an influential ally in the Mideast and access to the region is critical. But Mr. Erdogan’s anti-Western behavior is sowing deep mistrust about his commitment to an alliance that is supposed to be based as much on the common values of “democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law” as on a common military defense. So NATO experts are debating Turkey’s future and the wisdom of keeping the tactical nuclear weapons at Incirlik.

Doesn’t it help the U.S. to have nuclear weapons in Turkey?

No. Experts have long worried about the weapons’ security. During the coup attempt last summer, the Turkish government locked down the base for 24 hours, and the electricity was cut. Incirlik is near Syria, with its warring extremist forces. Mr. Erdogan’s anti-American behavior and his drift toward Russia have heightened anxiety.

The weapons were deployed decades ago as proof of America’s commitment to Turkey’s security but are symbolic. No one expects them to be used, and no planes at Incirlik can deliver them. The security commitment is better demonstrated in other ways. When the United States withdrew nuclear weapons from Greece, also a NATO ally, in 2001, it sold Greece F-16 fighter jets. If it becomes necessary to defend Turkey, America can use conventional weapons.

Can you really just move 50 or more nuclear weapons?

It’d be smart to move the weapons before Turkish-American relations collapse. A withdrawal would probably best be done quickly and covertly after the American-led coalition captures Raqqa, Syria, from the Islamic State.

Would this be a wake-up call to Mr. Erdogan? Or simply end the two nations’ alliance?

NATO is a consensus organization, and Turkey could make mischief by thwarting its decision-making. It could also withdraw from the alliance. But Turkey has prospered as a NATO member. That means it is likely to be the big loser if it forsakes the West for, say, closer ties with Russia. Mr. Erdogan needs to face up to the reality that the problem, like the provocations, are not NATO’s but his. He still has time to mend his ways.

CRETE, Greece — In a move that could be construed as a symbolic show of support for Greece in its tense standoff with Turkey , America’s top diplomat said on Tuesday that the United States will base a mammoth Navy ship at a military base it shares with Greece, just 600 miles from the Turkish coast.

The Hershel “Woody” Williams, a Expeditionary Sea Base ship, is assigned to the U.S. Africa Command and is not the kind of vessel that might intervene in a high-intensity conflict, should rising strains between Turkey and Greece — two NATO allies — boil over.

But its deployment at Souda Bay, a joint U.S.-Greek base near where Turkey earlier this year sent survey and drilling ships to search for gas , could serve as a symbolic warning of America’s growing irritation with Ankara.

The dispute with Turkey — along with how to resolve it — was chief among the priorities of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece following a series of meetings and tours at Souda Bay on Tuesday with the American secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

Mr. Mitsotakis accused Turkey of violating international laws with its expansionist strategy to claim waters and resources in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean that are controlled by Greece and other countries.

“It is a very sensitive area that has been recently tried by Turkey’s aggressiveness with provocative actions,” Mr. Mitsotakis told journalists after a private meeting with Mr. Pompeo. He said Turkey had stoked the tensions with extreme rhetoric and misleading communications about its intent: “In other words, actions that are contrary to the values of the Western world,” Mr. Mitsotakis said.

The widening rift puts the United States in an unenviable position, and not only because it risks being torn between two fellow NATO states. The U.S. alliance with Turkey is central to the Trump administration’s campaign to rout Shiite militias and other Iranian-backed efforts in Syria, where Iran supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The United States also has a massive air base in Incirlik, Turkey, where it stores tactical nuclear weapons .

But the Trump administration also has sought, with mixed success, to reel back some of Turkey’s aggressions.

Turkey’s incursion in northeast Syria, sending forces into areas held by Kurdish fighters whom Ankara considers a terrorist organization, has threatened the key ground force that beat back the Islamic State. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has detained U.S. citizens, governed in an increasingly authoritarian manner and hosted Palestinian militia who have been designated as terrorists by the United States.

The United States has not formally sought to mediate the dispute between Turkey and Greece; that is a task most recently handled by Germany.

In his public remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Pompeo gamely sought to straddle the division.

“We strongly support dialogue between NATO allies Greece and Turkey and encourage them to resume discussion of these issues as soon as possible,” Mr. Pompeo said in the remarks with Mr. Mitsotakis.

He described progress in mediation efforts by NATO, and said developing the eastern Mediterranean Sea “should promote cooperation and provide a foundation for the durable energy security and economic prosperity of the entire region.”

Earlier this month, Mr. Pompeo visited Cyprus — which has also objected to Turkey’s activities in disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean — and declared the United States “deeply concerned” over Turkey’s use of warships and jet fighters in its energy exploration efforts. Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 and claimed the island’s north as its territory, which is recognized nowhere else in the world.

Greece and Turkey nearly went to war in 1996 over an uninhabited island, a crisis defused by U.S. diplomacy.

Mr. Mitsotakis noted that Mr. Pompeo “had a chance to realize” Turkey’s aggressions off the Cypriot coast during that trip and said after Tuesday’s talks that he believed Greece and the United States were “fully aligned” on the issue.

President Trump has long resisted criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey — despite the authoritarian leader’s detention of American citizens and diplomatic employees , offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria and crackdown on protesters in Washington.

And hours after the Republican convention aired an interview on Monday in which Mr. Trump called Mr. Erdogan “very good,” the State Department issued a statement denouncing Mr. Erdogan’s recent meeting with leaders of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, highlighting the disconnect between Mr. Trump and the rest of his administration’s policy toward Turkey.

The statement, from the State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, said the United States “strongly objects” to a meeting that Mr. Erdogan hosted with two Hamas leaders in Istanbul on Saturday. The U.S. has designated Hamas a terrorist organization , and Ms. Ortagus said the leaders Mr. Erdogan met have been specifically designated global terrorists.

“President Erdogan’s continued outreach to this terrorist organization only serves to isolate Turkey from the international community, harms the interests of the Palestinian people, and undercuts global efforts to prevent terrorist attacks launched from Gaza,” Ms. Ortagus wrote. She said it was the second time that Mr. Erdogan had invited Hamas leaders to Turkey this year.

Contrast that with Mr. Trump’s comments in the convention segment: “I have to say that, to me, President Erdogan was very good,” he told the Rev. Andrew Brunson, who was detained in Turkey for two years until negotiators were able to convince Mr. Erdogan to release him in 2018. “So,” Mr. Trump said, “we appreciate that.”

On Friday, “Despacito,” the hit song by the Puerto Rican artists Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, became the most watched video on YouTube ever, with nearly three billion views. And it got there faster than any music video in history. Just over two weeks ago Universal Music announced it was also the most streamed song in history, if you combine the number of times people played the original song or video with a remixed version featuring vocals from the Canadian singer Justin Bieber.

The ascendance of “Despacito” is remarkable for a number reasons: Except for Mr. Bieber’s intro, the song is almost entirely in Spanish. (Despacito means “slowly,” and depending on how you interpret the lyrics, the song is about what you’d do slowly to someone you really like.) The rhythmic backbone of the song is reggaeton, a style with roots in Jamaica that developed in Puerto Rico and has long been popular in Latin America but has only occasionally broken through to the English-speaking world. The video is set in a storied Puerto Rican slum called La Perla and features a joyously multiracial cast.

And maybe most notably, the song has achieved worldwide fame at a time when nativism is surging, anxiety over borders and immigration is rising, and the executive branch of this country seems determined to make it whiter.

The song’s success highlights the truism that the soul that moves so many of us, that we groove to, that animates our lives, that in some ways binds us as a global community — pop music — is the opposite of nativist. It’s promiscuous. It doesn’t respect borders or stick to racial categories. It borrows willy-nilly, encouraging cross-fertilization of cultures and styles. It courses with energy from the African diaspora. And those billions of views say that people, lots of them American, can’t get enough of it.

Of course, the song’s success doesn’t mean that President Trump’s project will fail, or that cranky nativism will give way to happy multiculturalism. Plenty of people might be willing to watch a video by Puerto Rican artists and still not want a Spanish-speaking neighbor next door. (Although Puerto Rico is a United States territory, so if you’re American, get over it.)

But the song’s success does highlight a side of humanity that, these days, often seems overshadowed by uglier tendencies. We know that humans can be tribal, that we quickly organize ourselves into in-groups and out-groups, that we can treat those out-groups cruelly and even savagely. These tendencies probably predate our being human. Even groups of chimpanzees wage war against one another.

But we have this other side that’s curious, that doesn’t cringe from difference so much as find inspiration in it. A transcendent side that takes joy in bringing together disparate parts, in creation, in play.

Take “Despacito” itself. It begins with a steel-stringed Puerto Rican guitar called the cuatro , which most likely descended from an instrument brought to Spain from North Africa by Moors. The rolling reggaeton beat came out of Jamaica and, long before that, probably originated in West Africa. In rapping, Daddy Yankee employs an art form developed by urban African-Americans, infusing it with the unique feel of Puerto Rican Spanish and slang. Mr. Fonsi’s deliciously suggestive lyrics arguably belong to a tradition that stretches back to the lovelorn troubadours of medieval Spain, and beyond.

The song is a fusion, an amalgam. As such, it doesn’t just illustrate the genius of pop music but also serves as a model of how creativity works generally. Innovation often involves organizing old pieces into new configurations. Tech companies, like Apple and Google, know this. Hence their emphasis on cross-pollination — their open work spaces and public areas designed to encourage intermingling.

And this was also, until recently, how I’d conceived of the American project. Then came President Trump and the news that some still viewed the United States as a fundamentally white, Christian nation with European roots. Which means what, exactly? Modern genetics tells us that Europeans are themselves a mixture of different peoples, a hunter-gatherer population mixed with farmers who, thousands of years ago, immigrated from what’s now Turkey (near Syria), topped off by herders from what’s now the Russian steppe. Christianity, the supposed glue of Europe, was imported from the Levant. And I’m writing this in a language — English — that consists of French and Latin grafted onto an Anglo-Saxon base, sprinkled with Old Norse and grains of Celtic.

Yes, nations exist. Yes, they have borders. Yes, distinct cultures and languages arise. There are bedrock ideas that we can perhaps call Western. But when you look closely at the boundaries demarcating these supposedly discrete entities, you find them to be remarkably porous.

In the battle for hearts and minds represented by pop music, of course, all this goes without saying. “Despacito” has won the day.