Biden says 'America is back' at the head of the
table – but is that a good thing?
After four years of Trump, many diplomats are hopeful
– but US critics say the idea of a return to a ‘golden age’ is a delusion
Julian
Borger in Washington
Thu 26 Nov
2020 10.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/26/biden-america-is-back-foreign-policy-diplomacy
For most of
the world’s diplomats, Joe Biden’s foreign policy slogan “America is Back” is
no metaphor.
On global
issues from climate change, to non-proliferation and human rights, the US under
the Trump administration had literally gathered up its papers and pens and left
the meeting room. Biden’s election victory and choice of committed
internationalists to lead the foreign policy team, means that there will
actually be someone sitting in what has been an empty chair.
“There’s a
lot of relief that we’re going to have a much more normal US to deal with,”
said Richard Gowan, the UN director at the International Crisis Group. “It has
been symptomatic of US diplomacy in the last couple of years that other
countries have really struggled to get a clear picture of what US policies are
at times on issues like Libya or Yemen.”
Gowan said
one of the many clear winners on the world stage from Biden’s win is the UN
secretary general, António Guterres, who has spent four years straining to make
nice with Donald Trump to prevent the outgoing president from pulling the plug
altogether on US involvement in, and funding for, UN agencies.
“Now
there’s a lot of talk that Guterres is preparing to put out lots of big ideas
next year about fighting inequality, speeding up the fight against climate
change, and really try to get the UN back into the centre of global
conversation.”
How a
slogan as all-encompassing as “America is Back” is received around the world
will inevitably be a Rorschach test for what is perceived to be the “real
America” that has been absent in the past four years.
In the
liberal democracies in Europe, the general hope and expectation from Biden’s
language and demeanour is that the America being restored includes all the best
features from the past – with an added dose of humility.
“‘America
is Back’ means something very different than if George W Bush had said it, or
even if Obama had said it in the context,” said Constanze Stelzenmüller, a
senior fellow at the centre on the US and Europe at the Brookings Institution.
“And this means that this is a different kind of America – not a rapacious
America First at whatever price, but one that makes a very sober assessment of
its options and limitations of power.”
The clear
lack of US popular support for adventurism in foreign support – which was
effectively channeled by Trump – the failures in Libya, Yemen and Syria, and
the loss of relative power and prestige of the past four years, suggest that
the country returning to the world stage is a chastened America.
“I think
that Obama was still able to assume that America had almost unlimited power,
and therefore had sovereign choices to make about international engagement, and
about the way it dealt with authoritarian rivals,” Stelzenmüller said. “I think
the huge difference with this administration is going to be a distinct
understanding of limitations – domestic and foreign. And that puts an entirely
new value on allies, and also gives allies a great deal of power.”
Some
leaders and governments were clearly quite happy with the America that has been
evident in the Trump era – none more than the Gulf monarchs and the Israeli
prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. They are now making common cause to try to
block a US return to pre-Trump policies, particularly the 2015 nuclear deal
with Iran.
“A lot of
these regimes were extremely fond of the Trump administration, for a variety of
reasons,” said Khaled Elgindy, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
“Obviously the posture towards Iran is one issue, but also the kind of
laissez-faire attitude toward human rights and rule of law is another reason I
think a lot of these authoritarians especially are going to really miss the
Donald Trump era.”
It is not
just the world’s autocracies who are apprehensive about the “America is Back”
slogan. For some longstanding critics of US foreign policy, the very idea of a
golden age to which the next administration can return, is a delusion.
For those
sceptics, much will depend on whether the Biden foreign policy team, who are
familiar faces from the Obama era, will aspire to a restoration or to a
fundamental rethink.
“I think
the big question – given that Biden is basically putting the Obama band back
together – is did they learn anything from the previous eight years they had in
power, which was not a stunning success in lots of respects?” asked Stephen
Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School.
“Have they
acquired a greater sense of realism about what American foreign policy can
accomplish and what American power can do?”
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