Joe Biden won the election in November 2020. And before he could complete a year of his presidency, he had to face a global crisis — several of which were or intensified by former President Donald Trump.
The climate change issue has only worsened. The pandemic has been upending lives and the economy worldwide, America’s allies are losing trust, and China is taking advantage of the chaos to gain more and more power.
Iran and North Korea are a step closer to obtaining nuclear weapons. And let’s not forget, the Taliban destroyed Afghanistan’s so-called peace.
There are a lot of challenges for a new President to face. Biden has not always been successful on the world stage. He has a long and complicated history with Iraq, as he voted in favor of invading the country, which made the postwar Iraq efforts go down the drain He had gotten too close to authoritarian leaders, which did not play out well for him.
He has never had a proper signature foreign policy in Congress or even when he was Obama’s No. 2. The withdrawal of military troops from Afghanistan might not be free of other political complexities. All hopes that Biden will be able to pull the US out of the global hole dug by Trump are low but not impossible.
Here are some of the challenges that stand before Biden and the way they are being tackled by him, in his own Joe Biden way.
1. Global Health: Climate Change And Coronavirus
The first thing he did as President was to recommit the US to the Paris Climate Agreement. This was a significant development as the agreement set a target of reducing global warming and cutting its emissions from 13 to 15 percent by 2025.
Biden even laid out his plans to combat COVID-19 too, giving equal importance to the health and economic crisis. He spent a few months of his campaign outlining a plan to tackle the virus by focusing on increasing the supplies of available tests and personal protective equipment, paying attention to ways to reverse the nation’s economic downslide.
The international aspect of the pandemic was not much focused upon, though he had some ideas that were never truly executed.
He managed to reverse Trump’s decision of the US withdrawal from WHO, which came as a boon in tackling the pandemic. Promising to take care of all these issues was not just out of necessity, but also to prove that he understands all this way more than Trump ever did.
2. Alliances
After World War II, all countries for their better functioning agreed upon “promoting free trade and liberal democracy”. The US saw this as an opportunity to open their markets and sell goods to countries they build alliances with. This is what Biden wanted to restore.
Biden thinks the best way to do this is to maintain and reinforce America’s system of alliances. “The Biden foreign policy agenda will place America back at the head of the table, working with our allies and partners — to mobilize global action on global threats, especially those unique to our century,” said Biden. However, reestablishing lost or weakened relations has never been easy.
Several allies claimed they no longer trusted or could even rely on the US for help, keeping their past experiences in mind. Biden even hosted the ‘Summit for Democracy’, but it was of no use. Allies were not ready for a new challenge.
3. Countering China
Biden believes the US can get the upper hand over China by proving that it’s strong at home along with several of its allies ready to resist Beijing’s troublesome policies. Look at it as a geopolitical gang-up: the US and its crew vs lonely China.
China was said to be robbing the US of its technology and intellectual property, forcing American companies to do business in China. “We do need to get tough with China,” said Biden.
Turns out that these were just words and no actions were taken to curb the growing military and economic rise in China during his two terms as Vice President. Now he’s quite committed to addressing these issues with the country with chances of success being minimal.
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4. Nuclear Weapons Are A Major Problem
Countries like Iran, Russia, China, and others are out there strengthening their arsenals. Nuclear agreements have either been broken or being avoided.
The US and Russia do not even have any agreement between them. While Moscow is building a nuclear-powered cruise missile, North Korea is ready with a long-range missile.
Experts say nuclear issues will be more prominent in the Biden era as he thinks the best way to handle these pressing issues is through diplomacy.
5. America’s Wars
The US has been at war ever since 2001. This has cost America several lives, trillions of dollars, and Taliban surging in Afghanistan. Iraq is still in shambles; people in Iraq have openly called for the US to stop meddling in their affairs. All this has made the situation much worse.
The US is now pushing to put an end to these “forever wars”, and the pressure lies on Biden to follow through. His solution was to withdraw the majority of troops and let other countries fend for themselves. For example, he has ordered the removal of troops from Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Saudi led war in Yemen.
By doing so he surely has reduced defense expenditure and has taken a step towards ending the wars that the US is currently in, but it also creates a possibility that Biden might get the US involved in a whole new war.
6. The Chaotic Afghanistan Withdrawal
The pictures that played out on cable news in Kabul are something no American President ever wants to see. The full US military withdrawal from Afghanistan has created confusion, putting Biden in a political hole. His sole claim in 2020 was that he knew how to govern competently which does not seem to hold good anymore.
This was supposed to be an antithesis of Trump’s Presidency. But the incidents in Kabul—sending troops to evacuate unfurled a totally opposite situation. Biden did something that the past 3 presidents didn’t or wouldn’t do, even if they were in support of withdrawal. And receiving backlash was a part of it.
7. Speech On Afghanistan
Biden defended his decision of withdrawal by stating that nation-building was never the goal in Afghanistan. The US troops have been there for 20 years and their goal was to make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base to attack the US again. He did not want the troops to fight some other county’s civil war.
He wanted the wars to end with him and not pass on to the next President. He pledged that the US will continue to support the country, defend their rights, help in the evacuation, and continue to push for “regional diplomacy and engagement to prevent violence and instability”.
Even with all the pressure, Biden thinks it was the right decision to do so and he is sticking to it. Only time will tell whether this choice will turn out to be like the rest or will be a fruitful one.
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Sources: The New York Times, BBC, Economic Times, +More
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