Edition: International | Greek
MENU

Home » World

A Different World for Joe Biden

Four years after Joe Biden concluded his tenure as Vice President of the United States, as U.S. President he encounters a very different world

By: EBR - Posted: Wednesday, December 23, 2020

"Various forecasts predict that by 2024, when Biden’s mandate comes to an end, China will become the largest economy in the world, followed by the United States and India."
"Various forecasts predict that by 2024, when Biden’s mandate comes to an end, China will become the largest economy in the world, followed by the United States and India."

by Andres Ortega*

Joe Biden has a long track record in foreign policy, security and intelligence matters, due to his 36-year long years of serving as a U.S. Senator and eight years serving as Barack Obama’s Vice President.

And yet, during the Trump regime the world has changed in critical ways, which the new President will need to take on board.

Over the past four years, democracy has continued deteriorating around the world. In fact, it has been doing so for 14 years running, according to the annual Freedom House indexes.

Low global regard for the U.S.

During Trump’s stint in the White House, the perception and trustworthiness of the United States has suffered in many parts of the world, including among its allies and partners, according to the Pew surveys.

Ratings in various countries are at the lowest level of the last two decades. Biden expects to restore international trust in his country, but this will not happen automatically or come at no cost.

As Anne Applebaum argues, the U.S. “is no longer the world’s most admired democracy …is more often perceived as uniquely dysfunctional, and our leaders as notably dangerous.”

China no replacement

The U.S. climbdown is not due to China replacing it in global status. The latter’s international image has suffered a great deal due to the pandemic.

China, ever alert, will try to restore a favorable image by donating or cheaply selling its vaccines against COVID-19 to developing countries, while for the time being the West is doing little in this regard.

The economic chessboard

Various forecasts predict that by 2024, when Biden’s mandate comes to an end, China will become the largest economy in the world, followed by the United States and India.

China is already a great technological power. And given that technology determines geopolitics, China is well-positioned for the future.

The military chessboard

China’s official military spending has been growing between 7.2% and 8.1% per annum, maintaining its share of overall government spending. This rate of expansion fell to 6.6% in 2020, probably due to the effects of the pandemic.

U.S. military spending grew by 20% under Trump, from around $606 billion in 2016 to $721 billion in 2020. Even so, the United States has squandered public money on ill-advised wars that it effectively lost. While the U.S. toiled around in Iraq and Afghanistan, China was investing strategically – in technology.

The global governance chessboard

Under Xi Jinping, China has become ever more assertive and politically authoritarian. It has also continued penetrating the institutions of the general world order. And it has been very active in simultaneously building another, more regional order in parallel.

Its most recent success was the launch of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, RCEP, with 15 countries in Asia. That stands in sharp contrast to Donald Trump torpedoing the Transpacific Partnership, TPP, which had been launched by Barack Obama.

The main “legacy” which Trump is bequeathing to Biden is a new kind of a Cold War, Cold War 2.0, which the new President will need to manage and redirect.

Meanwhile, despite Trump’s very determined efforts, the U.S. trade deficit with China has not changed. Mutual investments have remained steady as well. Interdependence continues to be a reality.

The global terrorism chessboard

With regard to terrorism, ISIS, or Islamic State, has not disappeared, but it has lost the territorial base for its so-called caliphate.

Joe Biden is well aware of the prevailing wisdom in Washington that the U.S. government is spending too much on the fight against terrorism (which devours prodigious sums) – and not enough on its military rivalry with China (and to a lesser extent with Russia).

The regional chessboards

Meanwhile, the U.S. extreme self-centeredness under Trump has strengthened the EU (the latter is also thanks to Brexit).

Dealing with the EU without the UK as a member will be different from what Biden remembers from earlier times.

There has also been a resurgence among “medium-sized powers”, often led by autocrats/ nationalists who aspire to dominate their own regions. These countries include India, Turkey, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Russia, which seeks to play a more global role.

The pandemic also exacerbates an older trend, the proliferation of failed states, especially in Africa.

Conclusion

The world is not going to see a return to the foreign policy of the Obama Administration. Too many things have changed.

The task ahead for Joe Biden and his new team, even if it is drawn largely from the Obama Administration, will have to devise a new agenda for the United States in a world that has been transformed over these last four years.

This is further complicated by the task of selling that agenda to a domestic audience that, as a result of Trump and the pandemic, is disoriented, nervous and inward-looking.

*senior research fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute, a major Spanish foreign affairs think tank
**first published in: www.theglobalist.com

READ ALSO

EU Actually

Extreme weather or not, the climate summit in Belem is in danger

N. Peter KramerBy: N. Peter Kramer

That the weather is becoming more and more extreme does not lead to more political urgency

View 04/2021 2021 Digital edition

Magazine

Current Issue

04/2021 2021

View past issues
Subscribe
Advertise
Digital edition

Europe

The EU Needs Values-Based Engagement in the Southern Mediterranean

The EU Needs Values-Based Engagement in the Southern Mediterranean

As the EU prepares a new pact for its Southern neighborhood, the union should balance economic and security interests with support for civil society, political reforms, and inclusive governance

Business

To save the Single Market, bring back Delors’ 1992 playbook

To save the Single Market, bring back Delors’ 1992 playbook

Most people familiar with EU affairs know the single market is a myth. Hailed as the bedrock of the European Union, it was never completed and is now crumbling.

MARKET INDICES

Powered by Investing.com
All contents © Copyright EMG Strategic Consulting Ltd. 1997-2025. All Rights Reserved   |   Home Page  |   Disclaimer  |   Website by Theratron