Biden must undo Trump’s blunders
In choosing retired Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin as secretary of Defense, Presidentelect Joe Biden has filled most of the positions on a foreign policy team with reassuringly able and experienced nominees. Now the challenge is for Biden and his advisors to make good on his promise that “America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it.”
Austin, who must receive a waiver from Congress to serve so close to his retirement as a uniformed officer, would be the first
Black person to serve in that position. He would join a team that includes Secretary of Statedesignate Antony J. Blinken; Jake Sullivan, who will serve as national security advisor; and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a veteran diplomat who will represent the United States at the United Nations.
In four chaotic years as president, Donald Trump needlessly alienated America’s allies, cozied up to dictators, scorned international organizations, downplayed climate change, winked at human rights violations, treated career diplomats and military officers with contempt and confused his own interests with those of the nation. Both Biden’s statements and his appointments suggest that he will follow a different path.
But the next president will need to be more than the opposite of Trump if he wants to pursue a successful foreign policy.
To be sure, Biden should move to undo Trump’s worst blunders, such as his reckless repudiation of the Iran nuclear agreement and the Paris climate accord. But Biden and his team must also pursue – in a competent and consistent way – initiatives that Trump was right to undertake but bungled badly. They include winding down the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, engaging North Korea in talks over its nuclear program and responding to unfair trade practices by China.
Afghanistan poses a particular challenge. Because of a last-minute decision by Trump, U.S. troops in that country – trainers, advisors and counter-terrorism forces – are set to dwindle to 2,500 next month. Biden might feel pressed, including by some of his foreign policy advisors, to leave troops there indefinitely if there is no political settlement.
That would break faith with Biden’s promise to end “forever wars.” His foreign policy team should leverage its experience and diplomatic skills – ideally in concert with NATO partners and other nations in the region – to
create conditions that would allow for further withdrawal, leaving a small force to protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
Biden has said his administration would work with other nations, including China, to advance the objective of a denuclearized North Korea. But the administration should also be open to the possibility of an agreement that would freeze or contain North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Like presidents before him, Trump sought to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but what he once called the “ultimate deal” proved elusive after the administration floated a peace place that was heavily skewed in Israel’s favor.
To his credit, Trump did preside over the normalization of relations between Israel and two Arab states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Fortunately, the caliber of the men and women Biden has selected to shape U.S. foreign policy offers hope that the next administration will respond thoughtfully to predictable and unpredictable problems alike. Amateur hour is over.