Damon Wilson
JOE Biden is on a path to become the next president of the United States, and at first glance it seems like one tending toward incremental change. While the contrast between Biden and Donald Trump is stark, the president-elect will inherit a divided nation and a divided Congress. He is a cautious pragmatist with a four-decade-long, centrist record in politics.
And yet, however unlikely it might look at the moment, Biden also has a path to become a transformational president.
The depth of crisis facing our nation combined with unprecedented global challenges, at a time when the geopolitical environment has profoundly shifted in unfavorable ways for the United States, present the incoming administration with an historic opportunity. A President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris could seize that opportunity by leveraging renewal at home to rally allies and partners for global common cause.
Biden seems both to recognize the opportunity and inclined to take it on. Despite his modesty, Biden’s ambitions are monumental. After all, he framed his campaign as a battle for the soul of America. He has called for restoring our moral leadership as a prerequisite for progress on other challenges.
In combining attributes such as decency and respect with political acumen and long-term relationships, he is well-positioned to cultivate bipartisan consensus and earn public support at home, while forging a new model of US leadership in a world that has become more reluctant to follow America’s lead. This task begins at home.
Biden’s foreign policy agenda will be grounded in his commitment to investing in the domestic sources of our strength, including our democracy. This will involve efforts ranging from expanding voting access to building a majority in Congress to support investments in science and technology, research and development, STEM education, 21st-century infrastructure, and a modern immigration policy. Such reforms will be aimed at fulfilling Biden’s goal of leading with “the power of our example” as an effective alternative to China’s brand of state-led authoritarian capitalism.
“Biden’s foreign policy agenda will be grounded in his commitment to investing in the domestic sources of our strength, including our democracy.” Throughout his presidential campaign, Biden never went low in response to Trump and consistently reached out to all Americans, not just those who supported him. Despite the political polarization that prevails in the United States right now, he brings the relationships in Washington and habits of mind to deliver on a more bipartisan approach and legislative compromise.
But he’s also not naive; Biden bears the scars of partisanship during his tenure as Barack Obama’s vice president. With a closely divided Senate, he won’t be in a position to gain Congressional support for all of his most ambitious domestic priorities. He will, however, find far more room for maneuver on his most ambitious international priorities.
One of Biden’s political strengths is understanding the context within which he is operating. This has kept him attuned to where the American people are, but it will also help him reposition America’s role in the world. Biden appears to instinctively grasp that a changed United States is in need of a new model of leadership in a changed world, reflecting both our desire for other nations to do more and the limits of our fiscal capacity and political will. His team also senses the demand signal we’re getting from allies and partners who wish we made it easier to be our allies and partners.
This is not 1990, much less 1945, when the US economy and military were globally dominant—and the United States is neither capable nor willing to exercise dominant leadership. More importantly, other nations will no longer reflexively follow Washington. Trump’s unpredictability and badgering of allies and partners will have lasting consequences.
Adversaries such as China and Russia have gained ground and room for maneuver as the US-built, rules-based international order has frayed. Allies in Europe and Asia have learned to hedge against a potentially unreliable or ambivalent United States. And developing nations across Asia, Africa, and Latin America have become more capable and confident in pursuing their interests.
