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WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to abandon President Donald Trump’s vision of “America First” in favor of “diplomacy first” will depend on his ability to regain the trust of his allies and convince them that Trumpism is but a failure in the annals of American foreign policy.
It might be a tough sell. From Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Trump’s transactional diplomacy has alienated friends and foes, leaving Biden with a particularly controversial set of national security concerns.
Biden, who said last month that “America is back, ready to rule the world, not back out,” could strive to be Trump’s antithesis on the world stage and reverse some , if not a lot, of the actions of its predecessor. But Trump’s imprint on America’s place in the world – seen as good or bad – will not be easily erased.
American allies are not blind to the vast majority of American voters who continue to support Trump’s nationalist tendencies and his belief that the United States should stay away from global conflicts. If Biden’s goal is to restore America’s place in the world, he will not only need to gain the trust of foreign allies, but also convince voters at home that international diplomacy works better than harsh one-sided rhetoric.
Trump insisted he was not against multilateralism, but only against ineffective global institutions. He has withdrawn from more than half a dozen international agreements, withdrawn from several UN groups and trashed his allies and partners.
Biden, on the other hand, argues that global alliances must be rebuilt to tackle climate change, tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future outbreaks and deal with the growing threat posed by China. The national security and foreign policy staff he has appointed so far are champions of multilateralism.
Her picks for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Foreign Aid Chief Samantha Power – all Obama administration veterans – underline his intention to return to a foreign policy space they believe has been abandoned by Trump.
“Right now there is a huge void,” Biden said. “We’re going to have to regain the trust of a world that has started to find ways to work around us or without us.”
Biden intends to join the Paris climate agreement and to cooperate again with the World Health Organization. He plans to harmonize relations with Europeans and other friends and refrain from blowing up other NATO members, and he could bring the United States back to the Iran nuclear deal. Yet many Americans will continue to espouse Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, especially with the US economy struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest on American streets over racism and violence. absence of civil political discourse.
“Whether people like it or not, Trump was elected by the Americans in 2016,” said Fiona Hill, who worked at Trump’s White House National Security Council and now works at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution.
Trump’s election in 2016 and the tens of millions of votes he garnered in 2020 reflect a very divided nation, she said.
“We have to accept that the outcome of the 2016 election was no accident,” Hill said.
Steven Blockmans, research director at the Center for European Policy Studies in Belgium, said Europeans should not be kidding themselves by thinking transatlantic relations will return to what they were before Trump.
“In everything but the name, the rallying cry of ‘America First’ is here to stay,” he said. “Biden has vowed to prioritize investments in green energy, child care, education and infrastructure in the United States over any new trade deals. He also called for the expansion of “Buy American” provisions in federal government procurement, which has long been an irritant in trade relations with the European Union.
Each part of the world presents a different challenge for Biden.
CHINA
Fear of China’s quest for world domination began to mount before Trump came to power. Very early on, Trump moved away from authoritarian Chinese President Xi Jinping. But after efforts to secure more than a first-phase trade deal failed, the president has turned up the pressure on China and has repeatedly blamed Beijing for the coronavirus pandemic.
He sanctioned the Chinese, and speech after speech, senior Trump officials warned against the theft of American technology by China, conducting cyber attacks, taking aggressive action in the South China Sea, cracking down on it. democracy in Hong Kong; and abuses against Muslim Uyghurs in western China.
Increasingly, Republicans and Democrats are worried about the growing economic and geopolitical threat from China, and that concern will not end when Trump steps down.
NORTH KOREA
Resetting the United States’ relationship with Asian allies is key to facing not only China, but North Korea as well.
Trump broke new ground in the nuclear standoff with North Korea with his three in-person meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. But Trump’s efforts have yielded no agreement to persuade Kim to give up his nuclear weapons in return for sanctions relief and security guarantees. In fact, North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear capabilities.
Biden may be forced to deal with North Korea as soon as possible, as experts say Pyongyang has already carried out tests and fired missiles to get Washington’s attention in the US presidential election.
AFGHANISTAN
Almost 20 years after an international coalition led by the United States toppled the Taliban government that supported al-Qaida, Afghan civilians are still being killed by the thousands. The Afghan security forces, leading the battlefield, continue to claim high numbers of victims. Taliban attacks are taking place outside of cities, and the Islamic State group has orchestrated bombings in the capital, Kabul, including one in November at Kabul University that killed more than 20 people, for the most of the students.
The United States and the Taliban sat at the negotiating table in 2018. These talks, led by Trump’s envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, ultimately resulted in the US-Taliban accord which was signed in February 2020, providing for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan.
Determined to keep his election promise to pull US troops out of “endless wars,” Trump reduced the troops from 8,600 to 4,500, then ordered the troop level to drop to 2,500 on inauguration day. The United States has pledged to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1, just months after Biden took office, but it’s unclear whether he will.
MIDDLE EAST
Trump has chosen to think outside the box when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relations with Arab nations.
The Palestinians rejected the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, but Trump then persuaded two Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – to recognize Israel. This was historic because the Arab nations had said for decades that they would not recognize Israel until the Palestinian struggle for an independent state was resolved.
The warming of ties between Israel and Arab states that share opposition to Iran helped seal the deal. Morocco and Sudan also later recognized Israel.
IRAN
In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, in which world powers agreed to lift sanctions on Tehran if it curtailed its nuclear program.
Trump said the deal was unilateral, did not prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and allowed it to receive billions of dollars in frozen assets that he was accused of using to finance terrorist proxies destabilizing the Middle East.
Biden says exit from the deal was reckless and complains Iran has now stored more enriched uranium than allowed by the deal, which is still in effect between Iran and Britain. , China, Russia, France and Germany.
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