President-elect Biden must reset our foreign policy
President-elect Joe Biden obviously has a large agenda when he assumes office in January with numerous domestic and global issues that he will have to deal with. The key global issue he will have to face is our nation’s foreign policy. This will include reestablishing our relationships with other countries and our standing in theworld.
President Donald Trump’s foreign policy was based on “America first.” The premise of that policy was that when America is secure at home when America does good things for our own economy and our own prosperity, America will be a force for good all around the world we live in.
Biden will certainly alter that policy, at least it is hoped he will, because what “America first” means is America alone and Americans on their own. “America first” is not a well thought-out policy and simply does not work in today’s global environment.
Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and three colleagues, writing recently in Foreign Affairs, argue that we must adequately invest in relationships with allies and partners, cooperating with them to shape the international environment. International engagement allows the U.S. to see and act at a distance as threats are gathering — rather than waiting for those threats to become larger and costlier to defeat.
Mattis says failure to engage in this manner risks erosion of this network of allies and friends.
Ambassador and former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, now president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, contends that the next administration will have to reinvent U.S. alliances and partnerships and shape our foreign policy before it gets shaped for us by other players and forces.
American foreign policy must also support domestic renewal. Burns says the well-being of the middle class ought to be the engine that drives our foreign policy — pushing for more inclusive economic growth. Our actions abroad must further that goal, not hamper it.
Advocates of the currentTrumpadministration’s approach to foreign policy believe that other countries will have to accede to
U.S. wishes and cooperate on our terms. Those days are long gone.
To illustrate the hollowness of an “America first” strategy, one only has to look at what occurred just a fewweeks ago when15 Asian countries signed the world’s largest trade deal. Called theRegional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP), the deal included all of the Pacific region’s biggest economies (China, Japan, South Korean, Australia) plus ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and New Zealand. RCEP covers nearly a third of global GDP and is larger than the EuropeanUnion single market.
Where was the U.S. at the negotiations? We were not there but look who was — many of our democratic allies such as Japan, Australia, SouthKorea, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines andNewZealand. RCEPis a slap in the face to the U.S. But how can you blame our allies for doing what they did whenwe are no longer perceived as being a reliable partner?
It’s what we get for our political leadership committing to an “America first” foreign policy.
Mattis and his colleagues argue that it is imperative to maintain robust alliances everywhere. In Asia, for example, we can strengthen our relationships that share a commitment to a free and open region — and participating more fully in working to improve relationships so that China cannot manipulate them to our disadvantage.
Those partnerships are also important when it comes to critical supply chains and reducing our dependence on China for critical goods (e.g., pharmaceuticals) and materials such as rare earth minerals which we have discussed previously on these pages.
The time for a foreign policy reset is long overdue.
Biden has put together a solid national security team and has pledged to put the United States at the head of the international table in collaborationwith our friends and allies. We have lost ourplace at the table but that’s where we belong. Our values, culture and our commitment to a global order make it a rightful place for us. TomJurkowsky is a retiredNavy rear admiral who served on active duty for 31 years. He is the author of “The Secret Sauce for Organizational Success: Communications and Leadership on theSamePage.” He lives inAnnapolis. Visit hiswebsite: tomjurkowsky.net