Biden's Doctrine: What It Has & What It Has to Do!
-
Laila Nicola
- 30 Jun 2021 19:21
5 Min Read
The administration's vision of US foreign policy during the Biden period, and whether it succeeds or fails, is contingent on his ability to implement it at home.
-
Globalization has disproportionately benefited high-income individuals and major firms in the United States.
The foreign policy perspective of the present US government, which is usually titled after the president, has become rather evident. For example, the doctrine of US President Joe Biden, who insists on saying "America is back" at every opportunity, can be described as follows:
1- Power at the Local Level
If there is one universal truth in American foreign policy — across parties, administrations, and ideologies — the country must be strong at home to be powerful abroad.
Globalization has disproportionately benefited high-income individuals and significant firms in the United States, exacerbating economic inequality. In addition, globalization, technological transformations, and the migration of factories and industrialization to Asia have plunged the middle classes into significant crises, transformed many former industrial cities into desolate areas, and forced their residents to migrate or enter into a spiral of poverty forcibly.
These issues contributed to the rise of populist presidents like Donald Trump and the increased populist proper support.
The United States is in a deep political division as a result of the Corona. The pandemic, which has plunged the country into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, exacerbated deep inequalities in American society and unleashed a level of societal upheaval not seen in the United States since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
As a result, Biden understood from the start that the United States needed to create new jobs and improve the lives of the middle and lower classes, which he promised to do by creating jobs in the "green" economy, alternative energy, and technology, as well as raising the population's standard of living.
In addition, Biden unveiled a USD3 trillion plan to update highways, airports, and other traditional infrastructure. This initiative will help local communities flourish by investing in internet networks, clean water, schools, and nurseries, among other things.
2- Security and Defense
The Biden administration has approved a massive defense budget in addition to infrastructure. It attempts to repair the political breach through party understandings (which have failed to produce any results). Instead, it was primarily focused on artificial intelligence development and competing with China in the military, technological, and research domains.
Americans believe that to battle foes and dissuade those overseas; the US must maintain a robust national defense. Furthermore, for many middle-class areas across the country, defense spending and the defense industrial base are the lifeblood and source of jobs for many middle-class communities.
As a result, lowering the defense budget will generate problems for Biden, whether through the military-industrial complex's use of pressure groups or the classes whose job losses would harm as a result.
3- A Foreign Policy which Works Better for the Middle Class
Since Biden's election, it has been declared that US foreign policy, which has benefited big companies and wealthy Americans for decades, must change. The international policy should be a catalyst for the middle classes to improving their living standards at home.
Making globalization work for the middle class requires a foreign economic policy. It also requires prioritizing policies that create more jobs at home, punishing unfair foreign trade practices that are especially harmful to small and medium-sized businesses and their workers (particularly Chinese policies), and assists businesses. Besides, small and medium-sized companies must become more competitive in the global economy to attract new customers.
Biden is attempting to win the support of the middle classes, which are more concerned with direct threats to their physical and economic security than with changing regimes. Biden eyes gaining internal support for his foreign vision, "America's Return," which entails restoring American hegemony over the world.
4- The ideological debate: democracy vs. despotism
Today, Biden reintroduces a new concept of the world's geopolitical war, giving it an ideological dimension and characterizing current international relations as "a conflict between democracy and tyranny."
Biden believes that the conflict between democracies and authoritarian governments is the main line of division in current international politics. Furthermore, he also fears that democracies will be lost in this struggle. As a result, the US president believes the solution is to deepen relationships with his Western allies to better tackle China and Russia.
The majority of Americans see US hegemony and global dominance as positive and beneficial forces. We find that a sizable portion of the US foreign policy decision-making community still believes that imposing liberal order and human rights ideals on the world is in the US's long-term interests and benefits Americans in the long run, whatever the cost.
5- Development: a global project competing with China
In direct rivalry with China's scheme, Biden was able to persuade the G7 conference to support an ambitious global development plan called the Partnership for "Rebuilding a Better World" (B3W) (Belt and Road Project). According to the White House statement, this will cost more than $40 trillion to pay for the areas targeted for development, poor and middle-income countries in the world.
So, it's the administration's vision of US foreign policy during the Biden era. Its success or failure will be determined by his ability to achieve it at home, as well as his party's ability to win the midterm elections in 2022 and control Congress, pass internal laws. Success or failure will be determined by the power of international actors, who will not stand by and watch.
