WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to scrap President Donald Trump’s view of “America First” in favor of “diplomacy first” will depend on his ability to gain the trust of allies. and convince them that Trumpism is just an echo in the annals of US foreign policy.
It can be difficult to sell. From Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Trump’s transactional diplomacy has alienated friends and foes alike, leaving Biden with a particularly contentious set of national security challenges.
Biden, who said last month that “America is back, ready to lead the world, not back off,” could aspire to be Trump’s antithesis on the world stage and undo some, if not many, of the actions of his predecessor. to make. But Trump’s imprint on America’s place in the world – considered good or bad – won’t be easily erased.
US allies are not blind to the large constituency of US voters who continue to support Trump’s nationalist tendencies and his belief that the United States should stay out of world conflict. If Biden’s goal is to restore America’s place in the world, he will not only have to gain the trust of foreign allies but also convince voters at home that international diplomacy works better than unilateral loud talk.
Trump has insisted that he is not against multilateralism, but only against global institutions that are ineffective. He has withdrawn from more than half a dozen international agreements, withdrew from multiple UN groups, and trashed with allies and partners.
Biden, on the other hand, says global alliances need to be rebuilt to fight climate change, tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future epidemics, and deal with the growing threat from China. The national security and foreign policy associates he has named so far are champions of multilateralism.
His choices for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Head of Foreign Aid Samantha Power – all veterans of the Obama administration – underscore his resolve to return to a foreign policy space they believe was abandoned. by Trump.
“Right now there is a huge vacuum,” Biden said. “We will have to regain the confidence of a world that is beginning to find ways to work around us or without us.”
Biden plans to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and to partner again with the World Health Organization. He plans to smooth relations with Europeans and other friends, refrain from shooting fellow NATO members, and he could return the United States to the nuclear deal with Iran. Still, many Americans will continue to embrace Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, especially as the US economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the civil war on the American streets over racism, and the absence of civil political discourse.
“Like it or not, Trump was elected by Americans in 2016,” said Fiona Hill, who worked on the White House National Security Council and now works at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution.
Trump’s 2016 election and the tens of millions of votes he collected in 2020 reflect a very divided nation, she says.
“We have to accept that the 2016 election results were no fluke,” said Hill.
Steven Blockmans, research director at the Center for European Policy Studies in Belgium, said Europeans should not fool themselves into believing that transatlantic relations will return to the way they were before Trump.
“In all but name, the rallying cry of ‘America First’ is here to stay,” he said. “Biden has vowed to prioritize investments in green energy, childcare, education and infrastructure in the US over new trade deals. He has also called for extensive ‘Buy American’ provisions in federal procurement, which has long been irritating in trade relations with the European Union. ”
Every part of the world has a different challenge for Biden.
CHINA
Fears of China’s quest for world domination began to grow before Trump took office. Early on, Trump joined the authoritarian president of China, Xi Jinping. But after attempts to get more than a first-stage trade deal failed, the president put China on edge and repeatedly blamed Beijing for the coronavirus pandemic.
He sanctioned the Chinese, and in speech, Trump top officials warned that China would steal US technology, engage in cyber-attacks, take aggressive action in the South China Sea, tackle democracy in Hong Kong, and attack Muslim Uyghurs in Western China. abuse.
Republicans and Democrats are increasingly concerned about a growing economic and geopolitical threat from China, and those concerns will not go away when Trump leaves office.
NORTH KOREA
Restoring relations between the US and its Asian allies is crucial not only to the confrontation with China, but also with North Korea.
Trump broke new ground in the nuclear standoff with North Korea with his three face-to-face meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. But Trump’s efforts failed to deliver a deal to convince Kim to give up his nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief and security guarantees. In fact, North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear capabilities.
Biden could be forced to deal with North Korea sooner rather than later, as experts say Pyongyang has a history of conducting tests and firing missiles to get Washington’s attention around the US presidential election.
AFGHANISTAN
Nearly 20 years after a US-led international coalition toppled the Taliban government that supported Al Qaeda, Afghan civilians are still being murdered by the thousands. The Afghan security forces, at the forefront of the battlefield, still have many casualties. Taliban attacks are taking place outside the 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, mostly students.
The US and the Taliban were at the negotiating table in 2018. Those talks, led by Trump envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, eventually led to the US-Taliban deal signed in February 2020 that provided for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan. .
Trump wanted to keep his campaign promise to withdraw US troops from “endless wars,” cut the troops from 8,600 to 4,500, and then ordered the number of troops reduced to 2,500 on inauguration day. The United States has pledged to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by May 1, just months after Biden took office, but it is unclear if he will.
MIDDLE EAST
Trump chose to think outside the box when it came to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relations with Arab countries.
The Palestinians rejected the Trump administration’s peace plan in the Middle East, but then Trump persuaded two Arab nations – the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – to recognize Israel. This was historic because for decades Arab nations had said they would not recognize Israel until the Palestinians’ struggle for an independent state was resolved.
Warming ties between Israel and Arab states sharing opposition to Iran helped seal the deal. Morocco and Sudan later also recognized Israel.
IRAN
In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran, in which world powers agreed to lift sanctions against Tehran if it curbed its nuclear program.
Trump said the deal was one-sided, did not prevent Iran from eventually getting a nuclear weapon, and it allowed it to receive billions of dollars in frozen assets it allegedly used to fund terror providers destabilizing the Middle East.
Biden says closing the deal was reckless and complains that Iran has now stored more enriched uranium than allowed under the deal, which is still in effect between Iran and Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany.