In a column at The Hill Niall Stanage lists what he characterizes as “Biden’s five biggest foreign policy challenges”. His list is and I’ve added my comments to each one:
- Countering the rise of China
As my distant ancestor put it, don’t set the fence too far. We either cannot counter the rise of China or China’s rise may counter itself. What we need to do is figure out how we will adapt to China’s rise which is a somewhat different matter.
- Exploring a return to the Iran nuclear deal
That was sort of a campaign promise. President Biden is pretty much obligated to pursue that. I don’t think it’s in his five biggest challenges though.
- Seeking progress between Israel and the Palestinians
If the Biden Administration doesn’t screw up the groundwork for this one was laid pretty well by the Trump Administration. Waning support from other Arab countries will pretty well ensure progress. Or a desperate last ditch attempt by the Palestinians. Whichever of those takes place what more can we do?
- The Russia question
List me among those who do not think that Russia is much of a threat to the U. S. or U. S. interests. If we stopped acting aggressively towards them, they’d probably do the same.
Have no doubt the relationship between Russia and the U. S. is the most important bilateral relationship in the world today and will remain so. IMO those who worry about a Russia-China entente don’t know much about either country.
Unreconstructed Cold Warriors have been screwing up our relationship with Russia for the last 25 years and that has probably resulted in our losing the opportunity to forge a really constructive relationship with Russia. It’s time for us to try a different tack. We have a number of areas of mutual interest. Like not destroying the world.
- Clarity on Cuba
I have no idea how this item landed on this list. I can think of a dozen more pressing issues.
/li>
Unmentioned are forging betters relations with our neighbors in Central and South America, the prospect of a serious war in Africa, ongoing carnage in the Middle East, Europe’s continuing decline, forging an Anglospheric cooperative group, North Korea which will not allow itself to remain ignored for long, and making our Asian allies less nervous.
Update
And what about places where we continue to have troops in the field like Syria and Afghanistan? You remember Afghanistan? It was in all the papers. And what about Yemen?
2, 3, and 5 are Obama era priorities and I can think of no other reason they make the top five than slavish loyalty to Biden’s mentor.