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LIS THAT 24 hours after Donald Trump concluded that he could no longer block Joe Biden’s transition to the incoming administration, the veteran Democrat took the stage alongside his chosen national security team. “America is back, ready to lead the world, not back out of it,” he said. The happy gurgling of relief this provoked in Washington, DC, London, Tokyo and beyond can be imagined.
Even more than expected, Biden’s elections reflected an emphasis on inconspicuous experience, pragmatism and personal loyalty. His candidate for secretary of state and national security adviser, respectively Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, are respected veterans of the Obama administration. Blinken, mild-mannered, impeccably groomed and French-speaking, served as the former vice president’s national security adviser and undersecretary of state. Mr. Sullivan, who possessed a first-rate intellect and slightly less hairdo, was another much-loved Biden. NSA.
Being friends, they wouldn’t be on each other’s necks like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton were. The likely outcome of their association (sign plus lullabies) would be a return to competent, low-key government and predictable foreign policy that reflects Biden’s long-standing views. Messrs. Sullivan and Blinken can be expected to engage with global issues, through partnerships where possible, and rebuild the institutions for which they were charged. The United States, suggested Blinken, should have the “humility and confidence” to trust its allies. By choosing a relatively low-profile secretary, despite Blinken’s qualities, Biden may also be indicating that he intends to do the highest level diplomacy himself.
It was hard not to hear this as a repudiation of Trump, and even more so when Biden’s elected Director of National Intelligence (DAYS), Avril Haines, promised that, if confirmed by the Senate, “will continue to speak truth to power.” Another Obama administration veteran and former deputy chief of the INCshe would be the first woman DAYS. Alejandro Mayorkas would be the first Latino and immigrant to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Biden’s Chosen A The ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield was a rare black woman at the height of American diplomacy, before being fired by Trump.
The diversity of Biden’s nominees also comes from Obama’s playbook. It is intended in part to appease the far left, whose defenders the president-elect has ignored in another way. His nomination of John Kerry, to be his empowered climate envoy, was another challenge for the left. Kerry is a pillar of the vilified Democratic establishment; however, the left must love its newly created position. Biden’s nominees have been duly received throughout the game. By way of dissent, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other lefties have limited themselves to signing a petition against the possible re-election of former Biden chief of staff Bruce Reed, a relatively obscure figure, due to his past openness to welfare reform. . If that constitutes serious Democratic infighting as some news reports have described it, Biden can rest easy.
The harshest criticism of Biden’s nominees has come from Republican hawks. Senator Marco Rubio characterized them as a group of privileged benefactors who would be “educated and orderly caretakers of America’s decline.” That rather ignored the fact that the majority of Trump’s team are members of the Ivy League, that they have not restored American hegemony, and that Thomas-Greenfield grew up in poverty in Louisiana. However, Rubio’s pointed comments speak to a legitimate question about how Biden’s approach to national security will differ from Obama’s.
Sullivan and Blinken have criticized the Obama administration’s areas of mistrust (especially in Syria and China). Biden has also stressed that the post-Trump world is different from the one his former boss presided over. Ultimately, that is probably to his advantage.
In addition to the goodwill lashes, his administration will have a useful influence to work with, in the form of Trump sanctions on Iran and tariffs on China. You will have little incentive to do without either one in a hurry. Even if Iran can be persuaded to abide by the terms of the nuclear containment deal (brokered by Sullivan) that Trump repealed, Biden would try to expand it. And Washington has no appetite to give China something for nothing. Despite the happy rhetoric, this could augur a foreign policy that is neither a total repudiation of Trump nor a new hug from Obama, but a crossover between the two.■
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This article appeared in the US section of the print edition under the title “In Transit.”
