February 05, 2021
How Biden Can Successfully
Restore America’s Alliances
Joe Biden’s
election comes at a unique moment for America and an inflection point around
the world.
by Ahmed Charai
Within his country, President Joe
Biden represents the countervailing response to the insurgent,
anti-establishment forces unleashed and led by Donald Trump. On the one hand,
those forces brought hitherto marginalized problems to the fore. They exposed the opioid epidemic for the national tragedy it
has become, requiring national solidarity with the victims and a national
strategy to save them. They brought a more frank and open conversation about the
tradeoffs of different immigration policies, however strident and painful the
discourse became.
On the other hand, the Trump
approach injected stridency and pain into the discourse and tainted the
discussion with the former president’s own flippancy toward the burdens and
requirements of democratic governance. This latter tendency culminated in the
assault on the Capitol, fueled by President Trump’s inability or unwillingness
to accept the results of the election. Without question, January 6 was a stain
on this nation that views itself, and is still viewed by many others, as a
standard-bearer of democracy.
This unique moment for the United
States highlights Biden’s unique virtues as an uniter. A presidential campaign
he defined by the nation’s longing for unity should not give way to an
administration of vindictiveness and score-settling.
Trump won nearly 75 million
votes, more than any candidate in history save Biden himself.
Governing the United States without them would be all but impossible. Many of
Trump’s supporters have legitimate grievances with coastal elites and
globalization policies: an approach to trade that enriched some at the expense
of many; an immigration policy that accelerated the decline of America’s
industrial base.
Meanwhile, viewed from outside
the United States, Trump’s personality may be unique, but his brand of politics
is not. Many Western countries—and some non-Western ones too—have experienced a
populist surge sharing many of the same characteristics. In some cases, such
as Poland, they are parties of the Right. In others,
notably Greece, they are offshoots of the Left. Their Middle Eastern
equivalents—consider Tunisian Islamist and president of Congress Rached
Ghannouchi or Turkish neo-imperialist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—defy
Western rubrics or easy category.
Foreign policy failures, above
all America’s decades-long entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan, were crucial
to the rise of this populism. Their legacy makes it all the more crucial for
Biden to find his footing on foreign policy.
In this area, as in so many
others, Trump proved to be a disruptive force. He withdrew from multilateral agreements, openly feuded with allies, and disparaged the role of civil
service at home and abroad. Yet for all that, his administration enjoyed
certain notable successes that Biden would be wise to build on. Principally,
against decades of convention and all expectations, five Arab states have not
only signed treaties with Israel but also taken meaningful steps toward
sustained people-to-people engagement with the Israeli people, heralding the
possibility of genuine, warm peace. This welcome trend, a departure from generations
of boycotting and exclusion, owes its launch to the inventive leadership of the
United Arab Emirates and its consolidation to the centuries-old Kingdom of
Morocco, bound to the Jewish world through ties of blood.
Which brings us to Joe
Biden’s foreign policy speech. In a clear, ringing voice, Biden announced
that “America is back” and “diplomacy is back,“ and made several
commitments. He affirmed that the defense of democracy and human rights are
bedrock principles of American foreign policy. He adopted the time-honored view
that foreign policy is at its most effective when America’s alliances are at
their strongest. He embraced the principle that consistency and reliability are
valuable ends in and of themselves. These points are at once banal and
heartening. America’s many friends abroad welcome a renewed
U.S. commitment to alliances and service as a steadfast guarantor of an
international liberal order.
But where American policymakers
find conflict between these principles and the major foreign policy decisions
of the prior administration, they will also encounter a dilemma. A reflexive
reversal of the gamut of Trump precedents risks undermining those very
alliances. It would raise precisely the same doubts about American credibility
and consistency that Biden’s team so often—and rightly—critiqued about the
Trump administration.
And the need for American
leadership has never been greater. Covid-19 presents a unique challenge and, as
American development of not one but three unique vaccines illustrates, a unique
reflection of the country’s tradition as a beacon of hope. Chinese expansionism
and authoritarian brutality—ongoing atrocities against
the Uighurs come to mind—present an escalating threat.
I hope and trust that the Biden
administration will renew and restore the essential role the United States
plays for its allies, from Europe to the Middle East to the reaches of Asia.
Rarely have a man and a moment been better matched.
Ahmed Charai is a
Moroccan publisher and an Atlantic Council Board Director. He is also an
international counselor of the Center for Strategic and International Studies
and a member of the Advisory Board of The Center for the National Interest in
Washington and Board of Trustees in Foreign Policy Research Institute in
Philadelphia.
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