First 100 Days
Reflections on the Biden Administration and International Relations
Joshua O’Brien
I am aware that it is a faux pas to write about America for an IR blog associated with The Internationalist, but I am going to offer three excuses. First is the fact that I carry an American passport and civics education, so the topic is of personal expertise. Second is the fact of America’s standing in the world—perhaps the United States cannot claim the superpower status it had in the 1990s, but it is still one of the world’s Great Powers. Its foreign policy has an effect on its many allies and adversaries. And lastly, this is a thought exercise we only get to observe every four or eight years. I want to take advantage of it.
My first reaction to the new Administration’s foreign policy is to cite Warren G. Harding in praising a return to normalcy. The foreign policy team Joe Biden has assembled is filled with stars. The President’s own resume includes both Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and the Vice Presidency. Secretary of State Blinken is a career foreign policy official with institutional knowledge, and UN Ambassador-designate Linda Thomas-Greenfield is an experienced diplomat. Foreign policy stars from the Obama Administration are also returning. Samantha Power will head USAID, and Jake Sullivan is Biden’s National Security Advisor. Susan Rice is also returning, but with a limited domestic focus. The Biden team on foreign policy seems poised to work congenitally and with expertise that was lacking for the previous four years.
But I think it is flawed to merely term the new White House as a “return to normalcy” because it is refocusing itself with experts. Early policies have been more substantive than routine. Earlier this week, the President halted arms sales to long-time ally Saudi Arabia, and his climate executive orders have required climate change to be considered by the National Security Council as a key concern in its decision-making. Thomas-Greenfield took a stern stance on China in her Senate hearings, and press reports have indicated an already icy relationship between Presidents Biden and Putin. The Administration will clearly take a tougher approach to China than the Obama White House, and it will be even more active on the threat of climate change. The early significance of these decisions in outlining a broader agenda should not be missed as mere normalcy, but as significant and meaningful changes to American foreign policy from the previous administrations of this century.
In short: Average Joe might be a little more than average, and although the new Administration might seem like routine establishment, its figures also seem eager to make meaningful, even idealistic change.