Biden’s foreign policy: Pivoting from Trump
“In normal times,” President Biden’s foreign policy address last week “would have come off as a string of clichés,” said Fred Kaplan in Slate.com. But in light of the “ravaged” alliances and demoralized State Department that Biden inherited, his declaration that “America is back, diplomacy is back” seemed “fresh, even bracing.” He also announced a slew of actions: extending the New START nuclear treaty with Russia; re-entering the Paris climate deal and World Health Organization; ending military support for Saudi Arabia’s war with Houthi rebels in Yemen; raising President Trump’s 15,000-person-ayear refugee cap to 125,000; and halting Trump’s U.S. troop withdrawal from Germany while the Pentagon reassesses deployment levels worldwide.
Biden said “nothing to make America’s competitors nervous,” said James Jay Carafano in NationalInterest.com. He “waved a finger” at Russia, China, and the generals who’ve pulled off a coup d’état in Myanmar, while not uttering a word about North Korea or the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, Biden is prioritizing a “progressive wish list,” such as letting U.S. embassies fly an LGBTQ flag. The new Yemen policy is a clear mistake, said Victoria Coates in the New York Post. Biden will halt “relevant” arm sales to Saudi Arabia “to reduce civilian casualties” in Yemen. Biden wants to renegotiate a nuclear accord with Tehran, but the Houthis— radical Shiites who’ve fired missiles and rockets into Saudi Arabia—pose a real threat “to the stability of the entire Arabian Peninsula.” Removing the “terrorist” designation for these rebels will not lead to peace, and backing away from the Saudis makes the U.S. look “weak and conflicted.”
Not so, said Ishaan Tharoor in Washington Post.com. “Biden officials also stressed that they remained committed to protecting Saudi territory.” The U.S. will also continue fighting al Qaida and other terrorist groups in Yemen. But the U.S. military needed to disentangle itself from what Biden called a “humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.” More than 250,000 Yemenis have died since 2014, “when the Houthi rebellion toppled the country’s fragile government and prompted the Saudi-led intervention,” backed by U.S. F-35 warplanes, bombs, drones, and intelligence sharing. Many of the deaths are being caused by starvation and disease. Biden now has a chance to push for a cease-fire in a devastated nation where crumbling walls are covered with graffiti depicting U.S. fighter jets killing Yemenis.