{"id":222145,"date":"2022-10-17T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=222145"},"modified":"2022-10-16T06:54:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T05:54:14","slug":"the-flaws-and-fantasies-of-the-new-biden-doctrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/10\/the-flaws-and-fantasies-of-the-new-biden-doctrine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flaws and Fantasies of the New Biden Doctrine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US president\u2019s new National Security Strategy is ambitious–and delusional–about America\u2019s role in the world.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

President Joe Biden speaks during the first US-Pacific Islands Country Summit at the State Department in Washington, on Thursday, September 29, 2022, held amid growing concerns in Washington over China’s expanding influence in the region.
[Susan Walsh\/AP Photo]<\/p><\/div>14 Oct 2022 – <\/em>United States President Joe Biden\u2019s newly released National Security Strategy<\/a> is an amalgam of his predecessors\u2019 doctrines.<\/p>\n

It claims the role of an indispensable global leader like Bush Sr and embraces a Manichaean view of the world \u2014 democracy vs autocracy, good vs evil \u2014 like Ronald Reagan and George W Bush. It promotes the gospel of free democracy and open markets like Bill Clinton, and suggests that like, Barack Obama, Biden is ready to cooperate and negotiate with \u201crogue regimes\u201d. It even underlines an America First approach that prioritises domestic spending and investment \u2014 borrowing from the man Biden dismissively refers to as the \u201cformer guy\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No easy feat; no less after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has complicated the NSS final draft and delayed its publication by several months. To paraphrase Mike Tyson: \u201cEveryone has a strategy until they are punched in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, where this pompous exercise in grandeur falls short on coherence, it makes up with easy cliches about the indispensable nation\u2019s role in the creation of a \u201cprosperous\u201d and \u201cinclusive world\u201d.<\/p>\n

From the outset, Biden makes a number of fanciful \u2014 even delusional \u2014 assumptions about US world leadership. \u201cAround the world, the need for American leadership is as great as it has ever been,\u201d the document claims, because \u201cno nation is better positioned to lead with strength and purpose than the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such assumptions\u00a0may have been true in the post-Cold War period but can no longer be justified \u2014\u00a0not after three decades of\u00a0failures and fiascos<\/a>, overreaction and later overreach; and not after the country\u2019s recent retreat and retrenchment from the global stage.<\/p>\n

Yet, the NSS pronounces that \u201cwe must proactively shape the international order in line with our interests and values\u201d. There\u2019s no escape from American righteousness, even when those liberal values are backsliding at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

Every time the United States leads by the example of its power, it compromises the power of its example, alas.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the newly unveiled strategy lies a paradox in the form of a clearly stated dual challenge to American national security: a geopolitical threat from China and Russia, and global threats \u2014 climate change, terrorism, new pandemics and food insecurity,<\/a> among others.<\/p>\n

For the long term, the Biden administration is preoccupied mainly with a rising China. In the immediate, it is also focused on the Russian threat to European security. It believes these autocracies are \u201cworking overtime to undermine democracy and export a model of governance marked by repression at home and coercion abroad\u201d. All of this, of course, hinders the indispensable multilateral cooperation needed to tackle common transnational dangers that know no borders or geography.<\/p>\n

To resolve this paradox, the NSS proposes to \u201cpreserve and increase international cooperation in an age of competition \u2026 within the rules-based international order and while working to strengthen international institutions\u201d. Hence, Biden claims not to seek \u201ca new Cold War\u201d with China, but rather reaffirms America\u2019s One China policy, and makes clear that Washington does not support Taiwan\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

But China and Russia view America\u2019s \u201crules-based international system\u201d as the incarnation of US imperialism. They pay attention mainly to what the US does \u2014 not to what Biden says. They regard US strategic containment, military buildup, and alliance formation and expansion with alarm and hostility that will certainly undermine the cooperation and coordination needed to meet global challenges.<\/p>\n

Another problem lies with the NSS\u2019s choice of resources and methods to achieve its objectives. It speaks of a desire to build a \u201cfree, open, prosperous, and secure international order\u201d where people can \u201cenjoy their basic, universal rights and freedoms\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, to achieve such a worthy, even noble objective, the US plans to grow its power, amplify its influence through international coalitions, and modernise and strengthen its military. This comes even as the US already spends more on its military than the next nine biggest spenders, all of which \u2014 with the exception of China and Russia \u2014 are its allies.<\/p>\n

In other words, the Biden administration speaks as a healer but acts like a hammer, believing the US could and should act as the world\u2019s policeman, despite a long and bloody history.<\/p>\n

And then there are\u00a0the contradictions between US nuclear modernisation and non-proliferation. The NSS commits to modernise the country\u2019s\u00a0nuclear Triad and related infrastructure, while at the same time, speaking of verifiable arms control and the global non-proliferation regime.<\/p>\n

In other words, the US, like China and Russia, persists in its violation of\u00a0the Non-Proliferation Treaty that requires nuclear powers to\u00a0pursue disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals.\u00a0The US insists that Iran must comply with its NPT obligations when it does not.<\/p>\n

The same goes for values and interests that do not usually align with foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, where the Biden administration has been shoring up autocracies and rallying them against Russia, all in the name of democracy.<\/p>\n

The NSS also commits the United States to proactively integrate Israel into the region, albeit at the expense of Palestinians and Arab rights. It mentions the two-state solution as the better option, but in practice \u2014 and unsurprisingly \u2014 it panders to Israel.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Biden \u2014 unlike Trump \u2014 does not stereotype or even mention Islam or Muslims in association with al-Qaeda or ISIL (ISIS). And like Obama\u2019s so-called \u201cleading from behind\u201d approach, Biden proposes cooperation and support to trusted partners, shifting from a strategy that is \u201cUS-led, partner-enabled\u201d to one that is \u201cpartner-led, US-enabled\u201d. And for what it is worth, he also does not mention Ukraine joining NATO, only the European Union.<\/p>\n

This is an overly ambitious strategy with major faults and fantasies. It will give comfort to America\u2019s friends looking for protection and support from the benevolent superpower, but will also provide ammunition to America\u2019s detractors regarding its aggressive imperialist agenda.<\/p>\n

If, as it has been said, a strategy is an art \u2014 the \u201cpolitical art of creating power\u201d, of getting more out of a situation than the balance of power would suggest \u2014 this National Security Strategy is a masterpiece.\u00a0 But only in theory.<\/p>\n

In practice, it confirms what we\u2019ve known for a millennium: When a rising power challenges a dominant power, it is time to put on the seat belts.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Marwan Bishara is an author who writes extensively on global politics and is widely regarded as a leading authority on US foreign policy, the Middle East and international strategic affairs. He was previously a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – aljazeera.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Oct 2022 – United States President Joe Biden\u2019s newly released National Security Strategy is an amalgam of his predecessors\u2019 doctrines. It is ambitious–and delusional–about America\u2019s role in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":222146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[867,2197,70],"class_list":["post-222145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-anglo-america","tag-biden","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}