With a world at war in Ukrainein the Middle East and Sudan, President Biden is expected to speak Monday about his foreign policy legacy at the State Department in a speech expected to focus on his administration’s investment in strong global alliances and its attempt to reconquer America’s leadership role in the world.
When Mr. Biden took office four years ago, he sought to reassure global allies and restore foreign treaties that the Trump administration had withdrawn from. The president restored strong relations with NATO leaders in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and rejoined the Paris climate accord. But world leaders are bracing for change with the impending inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden is expected to make the case that America’s openness to the world is what will safeguard American interests – not isolationism.
The president recently told USA Today that he had helped repair ties that had deteriorated under the Trump administration, saying he had achieved an “inflection point” in history. He credited his long experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with helping him “navigate some of the fundamental changes underway, whether in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the Far East.” -East”.
“The only advantage of being an old man is that I’ve known all the great world leaders for a long time,” he told USA Today’s Susan Page. “So I had a perspective on each of them and their interests.”
In his first foreign policy speech as president, in 2021Mr. Biden aimed to link foreign and domestic policy interests by advocating a foreign policy for the middle class. The focus was supposed to be on China and repairing alliances, but was disrupted by crises in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“The United States is in a worse geopolitical situation today than it was four years ago,” says Stephen Wertheim, a historian and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The United States is plunged into a massive war on the European continent with serious risks of escalation; it is bombing the Middle East again with no end in sight; and it has entered into a broad-spectrum strategic rivalry with the China.”
Ukraine, Russia and NATO
Mr. Biden has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, becoming the first president to visit a conflict zone where American troops were not involved and directing more than $183 billion in military aid from the invasion of Russia in 2021. He played a key role in obtaining NATO. spend more on collective defense.
Yet the fierce battle continues on the front lines, with no clear plan for a peace deal. Washington deferred to kyiv to decide when and how negotiations should take place, with the slogan “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
Win McNamee // Getty Images
The administration was criticized early in the conflict for hesitating to send the deadliest weapons and later by some Republicans for spending too much money on aid to Ukraine.
Mr. Biden is expected to argue that his policies have ensured Ukraine’s survival as an independent state and thwarted Putin’s ambitions, a senior administration official told CBS News.
Israel-Hamas War
After Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 on Israel killing more than 1,200 civilians, Mr. Biden made clear that Israel had the right to defend itself with his administration sending billions of dollars in military assistance.
While Israel launched a war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,000 people according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and led to a humanitarian crisis, the administration has not changed its position .
In April 2023, Mr. Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu that future U.S. support for his country depended on Israel protecting civilians and aid workers in Gaza.
“Biden willingly gave up his influence by immediately pledging military support to Israel; then he criticized the decisions of the Israeli government outside of his own initiative,” Wertheim said.
The State Department informed Congress earlier this month of a proposed $8 billion arms transfer to Israel. Ceasefire negotiations are still ongoing between Israel and Hamas as pressure mounts for a deal to be reached before Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
Chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan
The most egregious foreign policy failure was the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Mr. Biden had promised to end America’s longest war and assured Americans that the Afghan army was capable of preventing a Taliban takeover. Instead, the Taliban expanded their control of territory across the country faster than the United States anticipated and seized Kabul just as the Afghan government was collapsing. The United States hastily evacuated about 125,000 people, including 6,000 Americans, during its frenzied withdrawal, but dozens of Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were evacuated. killed in suicide bombing outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Airport as thousands sought to flee the country.
American citizens and Afghan allies who supported American troops throughout the war have been left behind. Thousands of people feared reprisals from the Taliban and felt abandoned by a U.S. government that had promised to care for them.
Images of Afghans clinging to military planes in hopes of escaping, and of U.S. military weapons left behind and displayed by the Taliban, have become emblematic of the missteps that led to the evacuation.
In the three years since the Taliban returned to power, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have established a presence in the country, and Afghan women and girls have been deprived of basic freedoms they benefited from two decades of Western-backed rule following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
China
Trump started a trade war with China and other countries during his first term, imposing tariffs aimed at deterring what he considered unfair trade practices and encouraging American consumers and businesses to buy and sell more products made in their country. Even though the rhetoric changed under Mr. Biden, he nevertheless continued the tariff policy. And as was the case under the Trump administration, both view China as a security threat, not just an economic threat.
The Biden administration has put in place safeguards to prevent industries such as chip production from relying on China. Global alliances such as the Quad – US, India, Japan and Australia – and AUKUS – Australia, US and UK – have made diplomatic and military progress in deterring China. And the Biden administration has also strengthened its military alliance with Japan.
Mr. Biden was vice president when former President Barack Obama gave his “pivot to Asia” speech. Since then, U.S. policymakers have been trying to reorient their foreign policy, but there has been a world of distractions along the way.
“The United States cannot hope to prioritize China while remaining the leading military power in Europe and the Middle East. If the United States truly wants to prioritize China, it must retreat elsewhere.” , Wertheim said.
And
contributed to this report.
