Foreign policy set for big shift in US
EXPERTS: BETTER RELATIONS WITH AFRICA EXPECTED It’s foreseen that rhetorical war with China will subside but rivalry will remain.
Experts believe US foreign policy will change under new president Joe Biden, but the status quo will remain regarding China and Russia. Professor Siphamandla Zondi, from the University of Johannesburg said Biden would not alter the US’s attitude towards China and would seek US dominance in the world like his predecessors, but would be friendly to Africa.
North West University politics professor Theo Venter said US foreign policy would change from the inward looking “US first” approach of Donald Trump to the restoration of a multilateral approach, including rejoining the
World Health Organisation.
Zondi said: “It is consistent with tried and tested long-term US foreign policy interests that are neither Democratic nor Republican, but remain from one administration to another. It includes the need for the US to maintain its global power by out-boxing its main rivals in China and Russia.”
His relations with the African continent would be framed by a “world dominance” attitude. He would defend US dominance, advance the implementation of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa), as well as the African Command, the security building initiative of his predecessors.
“However, rhetoric and mannerism will change. Democrats smile better than Republicans when interacting with Africa. This presents opportunities for African leaders to turn those smiles into concrete improvements in Agoa and Pepfar [US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief],” Zondi said.
The matter of contribution to the Nato alliance remained a talking point. The rhetorical war with China would subside but the rivalry would remain and even intensify, as has been reiterated by several US experts.
“The new administration will want to be more diplomatic and civil in its fight with China. The open trade war might evolve into a more subtle trade war. The US will continue to clash with Beijing over geopolitics and the balance of trade,” Zondi said.
Internally, regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, the Biden administration would focus on implementing new policy, he said. Economic recovery and uniting a divided society would also feature prominently.
New administration will be more diplomatic
US President Joe Biden called for “unity” and pledged to be a president for “all Americans” at his inauguration in Washington yesterday, but warned of the challenges ahead as he takes on multiple crises.
Speaking at the US Capitol just two weeks after it was stormed by an armed mob supporting his predecessor Donald Trump, Biden declared: “This is America’s day, this is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope.”
But as the US confronts the deadly coronavirus and deep political divisions, he warned that to overcome its challenges will require “so much more than words, it will require the most elusive of all things in a democracy, unity”.
“Today on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation, and I ask every American to join me in this cause,” the 46th US president said.
“This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge and unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America.”
In his speech, Biden elaborated on the challenges ahead.
“We need all our strength to... persevere through this dark winter. We’re entering what may be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus,” he said, calling on Americans to “finally face this pandemic as one nation”.
Biden spoke on the steps of the Capitol, which two weeks ago saw scenes of violence unprecedented in modern history as rioters stormed the building, leaving five people dead and shaking US democracy to its core.
“Here we stand just days after a riotous mob thought they could ... drive us from this sacred ground,” he said. “It did not happen, it will never happen, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
The US faces “a rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, that we must confront, and we will defeat”, he said.
He called for the country to “reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated”.
Biden took the oath on the same very steps alongside Kamala Harris, who was sworn in moments earlier as the first woman vice president.
Biden, putting his hand on a Bible, repeated after Chief Justice John Roberts the presidential oath – that he will “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”.
Biden, who at 78 is the oldest president in US history and only the second Catholic, took office amid enormous challenges with the Covid-19 pandemic having claimed 400 000 lives in the US.
Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, became the highest-ranking woman in US history and the first person of colour as the nation’s number two. –