The Antidote to Trump Isn’t Obama Redux

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To reclaim America’s leading position in the world, the Biden administration must strengthen alliances, resist the urge to revert to Obama-era foreign policy, and rally the forces of democracy against authoritarian great powers, writes Walter Russell Mead in The Wall Street Journal. President Biden’s recent speech calling on Russia to release opposition leader Alexei Navalny and demanding that Myanmar’s military roll back its coup may be rhetorically reassuring to our allies, but it is critical that these words are backed up by action.

In the Mideast, Biden Returns to Abnormal

A rally in Sana'a, Yemen against the U.S. designation of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images)

A return to the Obama administration’s approach to the Middle East by President Biden would imperil American interests and embolden Iran, argues Michael Doran in The Wall Street Journal. The Obama-Biden strategy of abandoning containment, gutting deterrence, squandering leverage, downgrading allies and enriching enemies was a departure from the core principles that should underpin U.S. foreign policy. If President Biden resumes this approach, the outcome will be far from the “return to normalcy” that he has promised the American people.   

Biden Shows He Is No Obama

President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy at the State Department in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The Biden Administration needs to ensure that America remains the world’s preeminent power by reinvigorating alliances and partnerships, writes John Lee in The Australian. Under Obama, America was often overly-cautious, indecisive and unwilling to grapple the realities of international competition – all of which redounded to the benefit of adversaries like Russia and China. Although Biden has brought back Obama administration veterans to fill key positions, he appears to be adapting his foreign policy approach to the new realities on the ground and pursuing an element of continuity with some of the policies of the Trump administration.

Biden Should Resist Calls to Soften the Policy toward China

Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Photo by Wang Ye/Xinhua via Getty)

It is vital that the Biden administration keeps the Trump administration’s tough policies toward China in place, writes Rebeccah Heinrichs in The Hill. A Chinese government spokesperson called the inauguration of Biden “a new day” for the United States – right before the PRC levied sanctions on top public Trump officials who were instrumental in calling out China’s malign behavior. America must not bow to this pressure campaign.  

What the Chinese Communists Don't Understand about Our Democracy

A protester at an event organized to mourn the loss of Hong Kong's political freedoms. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Following the assault on the U.S. Capitol last month, the Chinese Communist Party wasted no time in painting the episode as representative of the chaos sown by democracy, writes Robert Spalding in The Washington Examiner. It even used this rhetorical sleight of hand to undermine the legitimacy of Hong Kong’s democratic protest movement. But the Hong Kong protests were not a result of a chaotic, self-governing democratic process. Rather, the protests arose precisely because the CCP stripped Hong Kongers of any consequential participatory power in the governance of their own city.

BEFORE YOU GO...

Join Hudson Institute Research Fellow Nate Sibley and expert panelists online this Friday for a discussion on the Rodchenkov Act, a new law tackling the problem of doping fraud by extending U.S. law enforcement jurisdiction to international sporting competitions that involve American athletes or have financial connections to the United States. Our panel will discuss how the Rodchenkov Act can help clean up doping fraud in international sports and hold kleptocracies accountable for their role in this practice.