03-20-2020, 03:52 PM
For those tiring of all things Coronavirus, there is an interesting Atlantic article on what the Dems new Foreign Policy might look like.
The Quiet Reformation of Biden’s Foreign Policy: The former vice president represents the so-called establishment’s last chance to change U.S. foreign policy so it is better aligned with how Americans see the world. Thomas Wright, Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/foreign-policy-2021-democrats/608293/?utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_medium=email&utm_content=85010600&utm_source=hs_email
Under Obama’s foreign policy, his administration largely preserved the post–Cold War neoliberal consensus toward globalization. Obama sought to pivot from the Middle East to Asia but struggled to do so. He pushed back against China and Russia more as his presidency progressed, but he was wary of allowing geopolitical competition to define his approach. He believed in the arc of history, whereby the United States, and democracy more generally, would prevail if it focused its energy on strengthening itself at home. He was a supporter of NATO but thought Europe should spend more on defense and could take care of its own problems.
So what do the 2021 Democrats believe? Their critique is not really of Obama per se, nor is it just about Trump. The view is more of a conviction that the world has changed in fundamental ways since 2012—when Xi Jinping came to power, Vladimir Putin returned as Russia’s president, and Obama was reelected. Over that eight-year period, democracy has eroded, nationalist populism has grown in the West, and authoritarianism has strengthened globally. Economic discontent has increased even though the U.S., until recently, experienced growth and high levels of employment. Shared problems, such as climate change and pandemics, have worsened, but international cooperation has become harder to achieve and to explain to domestic audiences.
The 2021 Democrats no longer talk about the goal of American foreign policy being a liberal international order, as they did during the Obama years. They still believe in international cooperation and a values-based foreign policy, but they don’t think the term resonates, nor does it capture the essence of their approach. “Free world” is how some refer to this worldview, a term that Biden now uses. These thinkers don’t believe that America’s success is assured, nor do they think that the free world is guaranteed to stay free or as influential as it has been for several decades; democracies may have unique challenges to overcome if they are to succeed.
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Those three paragraphs are a good starting point. Dems appear to be offering a liberal response to the erosion of liberal international order. That would be better than Trumpism or neoconservatism, but is it the best approach? Can the left (without quotation marks) offer something better and workable?
The article touches two issues I find especially interesting, namely 1) the debate over whether economic interdependence with China gives us more or less leverage over them (on the participants' assumption more leverage is a good thing), and 2) how to effectively lower or withdraw our commitments in the Middle East without disastrous global consequence.
Both 1 and 2 affect views on Europe, the EU and NATO especially, as some Democrats want to roll back the 2% criterion placed on NATO partners and work more on practical cooperation addressing larger geopolitical problems newly defined by the move away from liberal international order.
Hoping the craziness will be ended in November, I am looking forward to an era of serious foreign policy again. Without claiming he is especially gifted in this area, I always thought FP was a Biden strong point. My worry about Bernie and Liz, with whom I am much more ideologically aligned, was that they were weak or inexperienced in this all important and under-recognized policy domain.
The Quiet Reformation of Biden’s Foreign Policy: The former vice president represents the so-called establishment’s last chance to change U.S. foreign policy so it is better aligned with how Americans see the world. Thomas Wright, Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/foreign-policy-2021-democrats/608293/?utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_medium=email&utm_content=85010600&utm_source=hs_email
Under Obama’s foreign policy, his administration largely preserved the post–Cold War neoliberal consensus toward globalization. Obama sought to pivot from the Middle East to Asia but struggled to do so. He pushed back against China and Russia more as his presidency progressed, but he was wary of allowing geopolitical competition to define his approach. He believed in the arc of history, whereby the United States, and democracy more generally, would prevail if it focused its energy on strengthening itself at home. He was a supporter of NATO but thought Europe should spend more on defense and could take care of its own problems.
So what do the 2021 Democrats believe? Their critique is not really of Obama per se, nor is it just about Trump. The view is more of a conviction that the world has changed in fundamental ways since 2012—when Xi Jinping came to power, Vladimir Putin returned as Russia’s president, and Obama was reelected. Over that eight-year period, democracy has eroded, nationalist populism has grown in the West, and authoritarianism has strengthened globally. Economic discontent has increased even though the U.S., until recently, experienced growth and high levels of employment. Shared problems, such as climate change and pandemics, have worsened, but international cooperation has become harder to achieve and to explain to domestic audiences.
The 2021 Democrats no longer talk about the goal of American foreign policy being a liberal international order, as they did during the Obama years. They still believe in international cooperation and a values-based foreign policy, but they don’t think the term resonates, nor does it capture the essence of their approach. “Free world” is how some refer to this worldview, a term that Biden now uses. These thinkers don’t believe that America’s success is assured, nor do they think that the free world is guaranteed to stay free or as influential as it has been for several decades; democracies may have unique challenges to overcome if they are to succeed.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
Those three paragraphs are a good starting point. Dems appear to be offering a liberal response to the erosion of liberal international order. That would be better than Trumpism or neoconservatism, but is it the best approach? Can the left (without quotation marks) offer something better and workable?
The article touches two issues I find especially interesting, namely 1) the debate over whether economic interdependence with China gives us more or less leverage over them (on the participants' assumption more leverage is a good thing), and 2) how to effectively lower or withdraw our commitments in the Middle East without disastrous global consequence.
Both 1 and 2 affect views on Europe, the EU and NATO especially, as some Democrats want to roll back the 2% criterion placed on NATO partners and work more on practical cooperation addressing larger geopolitical problems newly defined by the move away from liberal international order.
Hoping the craziness will be ended in November, I am looking forward to an era of serious foreign policy again. Without claiming he is especially gifted in this area, I always thought FP was a Biden strong point. My worry about Bernie and Liz, with whom I am much more ideologically aligned, was that they were weak or inexperienced in this all important and under-recognized policy domain.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
![[Image: maxresdefault.jpg]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xbGhztiXhDo/maxresdefault.jpg)
