OPINION | A sober look at how Biden’s foreign policy has played out since Jan. 20, 2021, reveals a president who has improved the United States’ international standing in almost every metric, after the four-year calamity that was Donald Trump’s term.
is considered a great foreign policy president because he helped manage a monumental change in global affairs: the end of the Cold War. He and his team did a remarkable job ensuring that what could have produced chaos instead resulted in the orderly transition from one era to another. But they did not have time to develop or implement sweeping new strategies for the U.S. in this new world—to come up with a post-Cold War playbook.
A group of about 30 Brazilian migrants, who had just crossed the border, sit on the ground near US Border Patrol agents on the US-Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico.Then along came Joe Biden. He entered office with more foreign policy experience than any president in U.S. history and a strong international team. But he is Joe Biden. He is not a soaring speaker like Obama. He is not brash in the way that Dubya Bush or Dick Cheney were. He is not the made-for-TV president that Trump was.
But what is striking right now, what is worthy of comment and reflection, is that President Biden and his team have achieved more in two years than many of his predecessors did in eight. The pullout was chaotic. The U.S. misread the speed with which the Taliban would seize the country and that with which the government we had supported would fold. The loss of life associated with a bomb attack on U.S. troops and innocent Afghans was tragic. Many of our allies were left behind.
Virtually every major policy statement by the administration—from its National Security Strategy to its National Defense Strategy, from Biden’s first address to Congress to his secretary of state’s opening framing of policy priorities—has had China at the top of the list of U.S. concerns. Fortunately, Biden himself, in his recent meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, showed more balance and deftness than some of his tough talking advisers. Points off for those on the team who overstate the China threat and underplay the need for a more balanced relationship. But generally, good work so far. Grade: B.The always tumultuous region is playing a more limited role in Biden foreign policy than that of his immediate predecessors. That’s a good thing. But problems remain.
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