Dear CCI Followers,
Katrina vanden Heuvel’s analysis below is so “right on!” Please read and forward to your Congress members and friends; that is, if you agree. Let us know if you see the situation from a different perspective.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Opinion: Biden’s foreign policy team can’t handle new threats with old strategies
March 16, 2021
Opinion by Katrina vanden Heuvel
President Biden’s bold $1.9 trillion rescue plan is rightfully lauded. Both liberals and conservatives have suggested that it marks the end of the conservative era that Ronald Reagan launched 40 years ago. But although the new president deserves kudos for his domestic policy, when it comes to foreign policy initiatives, the new era looks hauntingly like the old.
Biden’s foreign policy team — carefully curated exemplars of the establishment — usually says all the right things: The world has changed; new crises — a climate emergency, global pandemic, crushing economic downturn, crippling corruption and inequality — demand attention; revitalizing our democracy and fixing our economy are the top priorities. Americans are “rightly wary,” Antony Blinken noted March 3 in his first major speech as secretary of state, “of prolonged U.S. military interventions abroad.” The president has emphasized addressing the climate crisis, rejoining the Paris accord, naming former secretary of state John F. Kerry as his envoy for climate change and making climate topics central to his first meeting of allies.