AFTER one of the most divisive elections in United States history, new President Joe Biden was left with what can only be called a total mess.
Former president Donald Trump instigated the first coup attempt in US history since the War of 1812 and left a Covid-19 crisis, the worst economic numbers in decades and one of the biggest foreign policy messes that has many of our allies wondering what happened to the good old days when America was a country they could trust to have their backs.
The Biden administration has made some big moves so far, using 30 presidential executive orders to rejoin the Paris Agreement and World Health Organisation.
He also used his pen to overturn many of Trump’s actions on immigration, including reversing the Trump administration’s restrictions on US entry for passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The man who will run point on foreign policy for the US is Antony Blinken, his nominee for secretary of state who is expected to rebuild a stronger and deeper State Department. Blinken is awaiting Senate confirmation, which should happen sometime this week, largely because he is well known to both Democrats and Senate Republicans.
Blinken, trusted Biden adviser and long-time government official who has worked for the Senate as well as the Clinton and Obama administrations, said his priorities are building up the diplomatic corps and revitalising core alliances.
Blinken was central to Obama’s foreign policy team and played a significant role in responding to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and backing for separatists in Ukraine, the raid to kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in 2011, and the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Unlike former boss at state Mike Pompeo, who left the department with a bit of a “brain drain”, Blinken has the background to rebuild a department that is critical to how the US will be viewed around the world.
Blinken has been a strong believer in building international alliances on all aspects of policy and never a fan of America going it alone.
Put simply, the world is safer for the American people when we have friends, partners and allies. – Antony Blinken, 2016
He has described Europe as “a vital partner” and has dismissed the Trump administration’s plans to remove US troops from Germany as “foolish, it’s spiteful, and it’s a strategic loser. It weakens Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), it helps Vladimir Putin, and it harms Germany, our most important ally in Europe”.
When it comes to Asia, in a recent interview with CBS News’ Mike Morrell, it became clear that Blinken feels everything starts with China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that he supports.
“Throwing out the TPP was a huge strategic mistake. This was our best lever to change China’s behaviour. 40% of world GDP with us in it represented – something that China would want to get into, not stay out of – that’s gone,” he said.
“Not making common cause with our allies who are similarly situated when it comes to China – who are aggrieved in the same way with technology transfer, the theft of intellectual property, the lack of transparency, unfair competition from state-owned enterprises – we should've been on the same team with them.
“Instead, of course, starting a tariff war against our closest partners has made that more difficult. But that needs to be dealt with. But I think that as we’re doing that, we can’t abdicate our leadership in the region.
“And, again, out of TPP is an abdication of our leadership. Telling our allies: ‘You know what, you’re going to be on your own. We don’t want to pay for this anymore’ – that’s an abdication of leadership. And if there’s a vacuum, look, what have we seen? A profound irony.
“We’ve seen Xi Jinping try to assert himself as a leader of the global community who is in favour of a free and open trading system, who supports globalisation, who supports the United Nations, peacekeeping, whose voting shares are increasing in the international financial institutions at the same time we’re pulling back from all of that. And that means that, again, in the absence of American leadership, in the absence of an American model, a Chinese model could win by default not because it's better.”
“We had an approach for decades that sought to bring China more and more into the international system, starting with the international economy, on theory that this would actually liberalise China at the same time. And thus far, at least, that theory has not borne out.
“Now, history is long – especially Chinese history. So maybe we’re assessing the situation too soon. But clearly, the consensus that developed over the right approach – the responsible stakeholder approach right now, at least – is in serious doubt. But, I still think the basics of what we were trying to do, which was to cooperate with China where we can, compete with it where we must, but compete in a way that has a level playing field and basic fairness, is still the right approach.
“But now, we’re stuck in a different dynamic. And that is veering wildly between confrontations and abdication. So, on the one hand, a very confrontational approach over trade and related issues, which is not wrong in the sense that the lack of reciprocity in the commercial relationship was totally unsustained.”
There is plenty more things on the Biden administration plate like Russia, the Middle East, and Iran, and it is clear that you can bet there will be changes from the Trump policy. In the coming days, we will look at what you might expect on that policy.
For now, the best way to explain the Biden foreign policy is “steady, well thought out, and, most of all, done with partners, not on its own”.
America is back as a partner to the world, not a loner. – The Vibes, January 27, 2021
Jim Williams, seven-time Emmy award-winning broadcaster, is The Vibes’ US correspondent
