Biden plotting US restoration

Biden’s grand aim: A glorious American restoration at home and broad.
But his long experience cuts both ways.
For many on the left, Biden’s conventional global outlook represents not so much a new dawn as a return to the Washington establishment-led policies of the pre-Trump era.
Those hoping for radical action on pressing issues such as the climate crisis, global inequality, or confronting authoritarian “strongman” leaders could be disappointed.
If he wins, Biden’s supporters said, America would be back in charge at the global helm.
Normal service would resume.
Biden’s critics said he was but a pale shadow of his old boss – a cautious, centrist politician such as Obama but lacking the latter’s vision.
In either case, who Biden selects to be his secretary of state, national security adviser and defence secretary could be crucial.
Pressure from democratic party progressives such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren pushed Biden leftwards during the campaign.
The twin health and economic crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic also shifted his thinking.
He talked about “reimagining” America’s relationship with the world.
Whether his views have changed remains to be seen.
And for all his foreign policy expertise, it’s clear Biden’s primary focus, if elected, would be domestic.
Writing in foreign affairs magazine earlier this year, he set out a “foreign policy for the middle class” whose top priority was “enabling Americans to succeed in the global economy”.
“Strengthening the US at home was a prerequisite for restoring global leadership,” Biden said.
His priorities were plain.
The idea that America should lead internationally and that Trump “abdicated” that duty, was nevertheless hard-wired into Biden.
This assumption of supremacy was challenged by those who believed post-1989 and post-9/11 US leadership and particularly its armed interventions abroad, had served neither the US nor the world.
They pointed to Iraq – a war Biden supported.
“If you liked US security policy before Trump mucked things up, then Biden is probably your kind of guy,” wrote historian Andrew Bacevich, a former army colonel.
“Install him in the oval office and the mindless pursuit of ‘dominance in the name of internationalism’ will resume.”
Bacevich argued foreign policy-making – for example, decisions about sanctions on Cuba or Iran – should be taken out of the hands of the foreign policy elite, publicly debated and democratised.
Biden is more a top-down approach.
To be fair, he said he would rebuild alliances, nurture multilateralism and tried diplomacy first.
But the worry remains that his grand project could become a restoration tragedy, heralding a return to old-fashioned, high-handed American exceptionalism.

Climate and health
Trump abandoned the Paris climate agreement last year; Biden pledged to rejoin it, committing the US to meeting international global warming targets by cutting national greenhouse gas emissions.
In July, he announced a US$2tn (K7tn), four-year plan to invest in a range of climate crisis solutions and a separate scheme to decarbonise the electricity sector by 2035.
On the Covid-19, Biden said the US would rejoin the World Health Organisation and restore funding.
He proposed a US-led coalition to coordinate the search for a Covid-19 vaccine and new treatments.

Democracy and values
Biden said the world was caught in a battle between democracy and authoritarianism – and that the US should be at the forefront.
“As a nation, we have to prove to the world that the US is prepared to lead again – not just with the example of our power but with the power of our example,” he said.
Biden said he would convene a “global summit for democracy” within his first year in office “to renew the spirit and share purpose of the nations of the free world”.
He vowed to ensure the US presidency was again seen as a principled defender of open and fair elections, judicial independence, human rights and free speech.

Britain and Europe
As a man proud of his Irish roots, Biden was strongly opposed to any Brexit outcome that jeopardised the Good Friday agreement or threatened peace in Ireland.
Even if such concerns were allayed, a swift US-UK free trade deal, as promised by Trump, was likely to prove harder to achieve.
Given Boris Johnson’s perceived Trump-style brand of rightwing populist politics, Biden was expected to call on Berlin and Paris, rather than London, as preferred partners on European issues.
Like Obama, he favoured a strong, united EU that made common cause with the US.
Biden may be the undertaker who buries the “special relationship”.

China
Despite Trump’s repeated claims to the contrary, Biden said he would be tough on China, citing its threats to Taiwan, its “unfair” trade practices and its habit of “robbing” American companies of technology and intellectual property.
To do so, he proposed “to build a united front of US allies and partners to confront China’s abusive behaviours and human rights violations – even as we seek to cooperate on issues where our interests converge, such as climate change, non-proliferation and global health security”.
He had been notably critical of Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims.

Nuclear proliferation
Biden planned to revive the system of nuclear arms control treaties with Russia degraded during the Trump years, starting with an extension of the 2010 new start strategic arms treaty negotiated by Obama.
He said he would rehabilitate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump abandoned, if Tehran recommitted to observing its terms.
On North Korea’s nuclear weapons, he had little new to say.
However, the modernisation of the US’s own nuclear arsenal, begun by Obama, looked set to continue.

Conflicts
Biden said he wanted to reinvigorate Nato and strengthen alliances in Asia; would adopt a strong deterrent stance in the face of Russia’s anti-western machinations; would try to revive the Israel-Palestine peace process short-circuited by Trump; would end US support for the Saudi war in Yemen; halt family separations on the Mexican border and reform immigration; and, support the UN and international law.
Like Trump, he vowed to end what he called “forever wars”.
“We should bring the vast majority of our troops home from wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East and define our missions as defeating al-Qaida and Isis,” Biden said.
Another Middle East war, in Syria, is rarely mentioned.

Diplomacy first
“Diplomacy requires credibility and Trump has shattered ours,” Biden said.
“In the conduct of foreign policy, a nation’s word is its most valuable asset. As president, I will elevate diplomacy as the United States’ principal tool of foreign policy.” – The Guardian