Biden's Foreign Policy Teams Hints at War with China, Conflict with Russia
An analysis by the Brookings Institute based on interviews with Biden's
foreign policy teams hints at a foreign policy that closely mirrors that of
the Pentagon under President Trump.
by Alan Macleod
March 30th, 2020
By Alan Macleod
After closely conversing with senior foreign policy experts on Joe Biden's
team, Thomas Wright, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe
for the influential think-tank the Brookings Institute, penned an
unintentionally hair-raising article on what a Biden presidency would look
like for the rest of the world. He explains to his elite audience of
Washington insiders that Biden's prospective staff are "worried about rising
authoritarianism and see the world as a more geopolitically competitive
place, particularly in U.S.-China relations," and see war and conflict with
Beijing and Moscow as close to inevitable.
War with Beijing
Biden's team believes the U.S.' entire industrial policy should be designed
around how to "compete with China." Their "top priorities," Wright notes,
are "dealing with authoritarian governments include defending democracy and
tackling corruption, as well as understanding how these challenges intersect
with new technologies, such as 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum
computing, and synthetic biology."
Described by The Economist as "American's most prestigious think tank," the
Brookings Institute is a non-partisan, centrist behemoth at the heart of
Washington, D.C with massive operating revenue of over $117 million. It is,
in other words, likely to have extremely good information on the Biden
team's priorities, which, according to Wright, are working closely with
Europe to quash the "China challenge" and to "reform the global economy."
He does note that there is some debate within the Democratic elite on China.
For instance, "what level of sanctions should the United States impose" on
Beijing and "how far the U.S. should go." Taken for granted, it seems, is
that that some level is necessary. The questions of whether any sanctions
are necessary, or even if they are legal, appear beyond doubt. The People's
Republic is constantly denounced in Washington for its response to the Hong
Kong protests, treatment of Uighurs and its supposed mishandling of the
COVID-19 outbreak.
The article presents President Obama's "pivot to Asia" policy that saw China
encircled with American military bases as half-hearted. Biden Democrats
consider "modernizing the military" to reflect new threats a "top priority."
However, as media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting noted,
"modernization" has long been a euphemism for "massive military buildup."
Therefore, it appears that China is well and truly in the crosshairs of a
Biden presidency.
Cold War 2.0
An increase in hostilities with Russia is also described as a near
certainty. Top Democrats claim that the likelihood is that President Biden
will take office "after significant Russian interference in the election,
and therefore may need to impose tough new sanctions." Thus, Democrats have
gone from charging Putin for their loss in 2016 to pre-emptively blaming him
in 2020. "Democrats have also learned some lessons from Trump," Wright says.
Chief among them was that Trump arming Ukrainian forces - including
Neo-Nazis - went reasonably well, which suggests more aggressive
provocations against Moscow will be in order.
Indeed, a surprising amount of the article is devoted to praising Trump,
claiming that "catastrophe also did not strike" when he bombed Syria,
"killing large numbers of Russian mercenaries." Policy thinkers, he claims,
saw Trump's strong-arming as a successful tactic and believe Democrats could
do the same to "prevent further erosion of democracy" and to "deter
aggression."
Pulling out of the Middle East
Perhaps the most surprising prediction is that Biden's team will consider
the Middle East a far less important region than administrations that came
before it. It is an open question, apparently, whether the U.S. will
maintain such a strong presence in the area, preferring to redeploy
resources to China and Russia. Unstated is whether this decision has
anything to do with fracking bringing energy independence to America or the
gradual shift away from fossil fuels.
Regardless of the reasoning, Biden's team's vision for 2021 closely mirrors
the Pentagon's. As MintPress News reported last month, the Pentagon's $705
billion budget request indicates "a shifting focus from the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and a greater emphasis on the types of weapons that could be
used to confront nuclear giants like Russia and China." The Pentagon's
precise wording notes that it is trying to acquire "more advanced high-end
weapon systems, which provide increased standoff, enhanced lethality and
autonomous targeting for employment against near-peer threats in a more
contested environment."
Biden is currently the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
However, cognitive decline, a distinct lack of popular policy proposals and
a new rape allegation against the former vice-president threaten to stop his
momentum. Enthusiasm, even among his supporters, is extremely low; a new ABC
News/Washington Post poll shows 53 percent of Trump's backers are "very
enthusiastic" about him, with only 24 percent of Biden supporters said the
same. Worse still for the former Delaware senator, 15 percent of Bernie
Sanders voters told pollsters they would vote for Trump if Biden was the
nominee. This news might come as some relief to Chinese or Russians who do
not wish to be bombed like people across the Middle East were when Biden was
vice-president. However, American foreign policy is notoriously bi-partisan,
indicating that those countries will likely be in the crosshairs whichever
party wins in November.
