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In a speech to Congress this week, U.S. President Joe Biden stressed the depth and detail of his transformative national agenda. But hastily muttering about America’s powerful rivals also revealed the vagueness and inconsistency of its foreign policy.
His administration has been bold and transparent on its internal agenda, but has had temporary and annoying ambiguity in foreign policy.
The lack of major strategic challenges – the 11/11 scale, the Korean, Vietnamese or Gulf wars – and the devastating effects of the pandemic have placed foreign policy on the agenda of the US administration.
This allows Biden to speak as a “liberal internationalist” but to act as a “pragmatic realist”. He joined his multilateral agreements and international organizations that he had set aside and predicted that he would withdraw permanently from Afghanistan, but his commitment to democracy and democracy and human rights in other places has remained rhetorical at best.
The foreign policy team has designed a pragmatic and cost-effective “foreign policy for the middle class,” yet, seemingly at all costs, America has boasted of wanting to achieve global leadership.
He stressed humility, but claimed surplus morals, constantly preaching to world leaders and swearing that he would prevail against China and other world powers.
It is not surprising that some believe the administration has been unexpectedly tough, while others believe it is very weak. Biden may have foresight and experience, but he has no clear, comprehensive, or comprehensible strategy for speaking.
Or maybe there’s one, but it’s more of a strategy than a great strategy. It allows administration officials to speak on both sides of the mouth, say one thing and do another, in a way that upsets opponents and allies by confusing them.
So Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “murderer,” but he basically maintained the status quo. He warned against “aggressive actions” but then invited them to bilateral and multilateral summits to discuss global peace and security.
The president pledged to the Iran Nuclear Accord, but worked on diplomatic acrobatics to get more concessions out of Tehran and gain more latitude for the skeptical Congress.
Although Biden said Trump is all toxic, he has sharply used his previous sanctions and other punitive measures to get more concessions from people like Iran, China and Russia.
Biden vowed to end all aid to Riyadh’s “offensive war” in Yemen, but left the door open to do whatever it deems necessary to “defend” Saudi Arabia from future threats.
There is no doubt that the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been recognized as a “horrible” royal link, while maintaining the policy of appeasing his predecessor.
The most important challenge of Biden’s foreign policy, Chinese policy, is also ambiguous, but Beijing is not easily deceived or shaken. The so-called “balancing act” with China is neither real nor balanced.
In short, the current ambiguity may buy more time and space to deal with the chaos and instability that the administration has received from this “very stable genius” that has wreaked havoc on U.S. foreign policy for four years.
Perhaps it was necessary to combine it with the increasingly scarce resources of America with extremely high goals. But it is not an alternative to the long-term strategy that is essential for a world power.
The president once again proclaimed “America is back,” “America is on the move,” and advised not to “prevail” against America, including its “extreme competition” with China. But he has not shown how he plans to achieve American recovery.
Biden can provide confidence and issue warnings and ultimatums, but these cannot compensate for the lack of a viable strategy that will guide the country’s foreign policy during his tenure.
The Trump presidency has shown why a superpower like the US cannot replace a great strategy with stupidity and gambling.
Such tricks are aimed at weakening U.S. alliances and uniting fierce opponents. Lack of strategic visibility can lead to misunderstandings and even dire side effects.
Unlike Trump, Biden wants to side with liberal values in America, regardless of the number of times they have been in danger, calling on autocrats for their abuses and condemning bloody dictators for their crimes.
And that’s good. Very good thing. If so far it has not been proven to be absurd in the Middle East.
With eight years as vice president, Biden does not seem to be convinced by Obama’s “behind-the-scenes” strategy. In geopolitics, especially with the rise of China and the push for Russia, you are either heading from the front or not driving at all.
But, once again, this requires an excellent strategy that will build trust between skeptical Europeans and alienated Asians; one, which guarantees security in the future against Russian persecution and intimidation; Which compensates for all the losses caused by the future alignment against China.
That doesn’t mean the U.S. needs to make a strategy for another cold war. On the contrary, as I have long argued. It should avoid confrontations and encourage dialogue at all costs.
Biden’s last week’s Climate Summit has shown how the US is essential as a leader in a major global effort on a major issue like global warming. But his predecessor also proved that America could and would drown the consensus and block progress on critical global issues.
Over the years, America has proven to be capable of being a benevolent and evil force in the world, based on its preferred values and interests.
Biden must show why and how security and prosperity are not necessarily in line with freedom and human rights, and why the politics of global power do not necessarily have to be a game of sum.
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