America Is Back

“America is back”.

With these three words, President-elect Joe Biden introduced his foreign policy team on November 24th.

Where had Ameria gone?

Thirty years ago, the Soviet Union fell, and the United States entered a golden age of global leadership under then-President George H.W. Bush.  

He began by addressing Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait with a broad coalition of world powers and smaller nations, ensuring that the United Nations endorsed military action to liberate one of its member states, and creating a strong bond of friendship and cooperation with a nascent Russian democracy under them President Boris Yeltsin.

From this he moved on to the Madrid Peace Conference that brought Israeli and Arab heads of government together around the same table and led to the Oslo accords that for many years served as a beacon of hope in the Middle East and, indeed, around the world.

Bush senior was followed by Bill Clinton, who envisioned a hemisphere bound together by common values through a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

All in all, heady times for liberal democratic governments around the world as they sought to make their imprint on global governance.

The United Nations Security Council functioned as never before (and never again until this day), and pax americana reigned supreme.

This began to unravel with the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in retaliation, and the coming to power of Vladimir Putin in Russia.

U.S. foreign policy began to take a beating in the Arab world as the U.S. action was soon interpreted as a declaration of war on Islam by the United States. Al Qaeda and, later on, ISIS, targeted the United States and its allies and they returned the compliment.

A sense of frustration became evident in US Public opinion polls, as government enthusiasm surpassed popular support for these wars and, like it or not, the government of Barack Obama found it difficult to extricate the United States from both of these quagmires.

Donald Trump caught the pulse of the U.S. electorate early on and developed his vision of “America First”—a policy of avoiding foreign entanglements and concentrating on issues that were directly relevant to the economic needs of the country.  

Trump attacked NATO, the European Union, NAFTA, and other multilateral organizations and treaties.

Trump withdrew the United States from global leadership – preferring good relations with Russia, North Korea, and other authoritarian countries while belittling his Western democratic allies.

Today, the United States is in a foreign policy vacuum – its credibility as an ally has shrunk, its value system under question, and its foreign policy ridiculed by many.

Joe Biden has named some excellent people to his future cabinet. Antony Blinken as Secretary of State will provide a steady yet visionary hand at the foreign policy tiller. Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.N. Ambassador with a seat at the cabinet table brings a long and illustrious diplomatic career to this key post if Biden is to rebuild U.S. engagement with multilateral institutions, as is Janet Yellen as Secretary of the Treasury – a key position that will enhance the U.S. in the international financial community.

These choices, and others, have helped markets to break the 30,000 mark for the first time in history. Their collective wisdom and experience will surely allow the United States to re-enter global politics from a position of strength, although much rebuilding will have to take place at the State Department, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community to bring them up to pre-Trump caliber and strength.

I have no doubt that that President-elect Biden’s heart is in the right place, and that his team will be a welcome addition to global diplomacy.

Is America back?

It may well be.  

Let’s see how quickly the Biden administration can change the current course of U.S. foreign policy.

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Edición: Ana Ordaz