Time for new policies from a new administration

It being universally accepted that Santa Claus is something of an international figure and that his arrival this year will coincide roughly with the arrival in Washington of a new administration, it is not entirely unfair for me to take the liberty of suggesting a list of foreign affairs initiatives or modifications of United States foreign policy that would constitute presents under the tree that our new president, to the degree that he constitutes a jolly old elf, could bring this Christmas Eve.

Speaking of trees, one of the issues that was pretty much ignored during the recent political campaign was climate change, even though our West and Southern coasts have been bludgeoned by wildfires and more-powerful tropical storms in recent years, and both areas are swarming with voters.

So, one big present the new Biden administration can bring to the country is a high level of consciousness of what is happening to the planet we live on and what we can do about it in terms of policies.

Rejoining the Paris climate accord is a start, but what we really need in that domain is the United States playing a leadership role in international terms, based on our own record and our best traditional role of promoting good ideas such as peace, democracy and development.

Our positions on such matters, Republican or Democrat, have little to do with American politics, but much more to do with what are classical American positions, based on principle, which caused us to abhor slavery at the time and environmental pollution now.

Other policies, some of which gained favor during the more mercantilist Trump era, centered on economic sanctions aimed at states or their policies. First of all, they didn’t work. They produced resentment but rarely stimulated change on the part of the miscreants.

The U.S. sanctions whacked the population of the country targeted, but its government basically didn’t care because it wasn’t answerable to its people for its actions and had little reason to change its policies to make them less odious to the United States. That was the case with Iran, Cuba and others.

The Trump administration got into trouble when it tried that policy on China, thus jacking up the prices Americans had to pay for Chinese goods that they couldn’t buy elsewhere easily or cheaply.

Other problems that don’t necessarily involve U.S. policy, but may offer opportunities for positive U.S. action under a different administration, exist.

There is no reason to think, particularly in the chronicle of recent history, that a U.S. policy of consistent hostility toward the regime in Cuba will have any positive outcome, even in influencing elderly South Florida voters, as opposed to the Obama administration’s approach of edging gradually toward normality with our southern neighbor. In general, there is more sense in acting as a generous big brother toward Latin American states, as opposed to pushing them around or threatening to do so. Attending regional summits should be high on Joe Biden’s list of priorities.

Leading this hemisphere’s nations makes more sense than trying to maintain pre-eminence in Europe to most Americans, particularly as Hispanics continue to become a more significant proportion of our own population.

The European or African origins of most Americans seem to be weighing less heavily on their politics as Latin Americans seem to be crossing the border in greater numbers. In that regard I am only a little sorry to be fluent in French instead of Spanish.

Due to his predecessor’s propensity to collect enemies through Twitter and ill-thoughtthrough actions and interpersonal relations, Mr. Biden will have quite a few messes to clean up. We are lucky to have an old politician as head of state. He should be able not to annoy the Mexican president and Canadian prime minister to the degree that Donald Trump has.

If Mr. Biden, like Mr. Trump, has set his sights on the Nobel Peace Prize, there is plenty of ground to plant. The Ethiopians have no need of a civil war. It is clear that in no time the situation there will deteriorate into starvation. The last time around it became famine with lots of starving children.

Beastliness has a tendency to prevail and there is plenty of ground for a peace campaign, to the benefit of Venezuelans, the Rohingya, and Uighurs, among others. Wouldn’t it be nice if Mr. Biden became the peace president? It is possible, as illustrated by Theodore Roosevelt, to be both strong and a peacemaker. Isn’t it time we got one of those? Surely we are owed one, given the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Americans always, rightfully, expect changes not only of policies but also of tone with changes of administration. May it be this time as well. Perhaps not as radical a transition as Hoover/Roosevelt or Nixon/ Ford, but change — welcome change — nonetheless.

It puts a heavy burden on Mr. Biden, but the American people voted as if they believed he was up to it.