Building American Foreign Policy Back Better: A Role For Britain?
By Jake Steiner
Joe Biden has a long road ahead of him but is more than capable of building American foreign policy back better.
Many foreign policy experts have criticized how President Donald Trump has damaged America’s reputation abroad, and President-Elect Joe Biden will inherit a gutted State Department, and a foreign policy which has cultivated relationships with autocrats and antagonized the United States’ closest historical allies. In rebuilding these relationships, what role, if any, is there for Britain?
The Scope of the Problem
Part of Joe Biden’s Trumpian inheritance is the results of the “America First” foreign policy, most notably a withdrawal from regimes, institutions, and agreements, including the World Health Organization, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (a.k.a. the “Iran Nuclear Deal”), and the Paris Climate Accord. In addition, President Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy has antagonized allies around the world, undermining the principle of collective defense and further damaging American credibility abroad. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for example, emphasized the need for Europeans to take their “fate into [their] own hands,’ denoting the extent to which Germany and other European countries, which have frequently relied on the United States for security. America’s “most like-minded, democratic partners,” could not trust America under the Trump Administration, a problem that won’t disappear overnight.
A Path Forward
A Biden Administration needs to regain the trust of friends abroad to rebuild American credibility and leadership. This starts with policy, as attempting to rebuild credibility around the globe will mean nothing without the action to back it up. The Executive Branch has unparoled unilateral control over foreign policy, meaning many of the policies which have undermined U.S. soft power can be rescinded with the sweep of Biden’s pen. Plans are already in place to rescind the “Muslim ban,” reinstate many climate regulations removed under Trump, and rejoin the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization. Doing so will signal a return to the “benevolent and non-coercive” foreign policy which underpinned American leadership since the end of the Cold War.
However, merely reversing policy will not be enough. To lead, America needs partners, and important relationships with historical allies, especially across the Atlantic and the northern border, have been damaged over the past four years. Trump’s tariffs on Canadian aluminum, European steel, and his threats to impose the same on Japanese vehicles and car parts have damaged bilateral relations. Similarly, the Biden Administration should cooperate with Canada and the European Union who alongside China have taken leadership roles on climate change mitigation in the absence of the United States. Doing so, especially on the environment, would provide easy ground for initial cooperation and a solid foundation for reviving vital relationships with transatlantic and North American allies.
A Role for Britain?
In rebuilding these international relationships, one might expect the Biden Administration to turn first to the United States’ oldest historical ally, the United Kingdom. The leaders of the two nations have often enjoyed a “special relationship” which has fostered cooperation and trade, most notably between Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan, and between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush. So, what roles is there for Britain? Perhaps not much. Transatlantic relationships when Biden was Vice President under President Barack Obama indicate that the Biden Administration will find greener pastures in Berlin and Paris than in London. President Obama had an especially close personal relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Similarly, as a former Vice President, Biden has already visited both Germany and Canada, met with both leaders, and Chancellor Merkel has already remarked on the “fond memories,” and “good meetings” with the then-Vice President. This amity between leaders—which President Obama needed to build over time, especially with Merkel—already exists with Biden, making repairing these bilateral relationships easier.
Biden has also leveled pointed criticism of Boris Johnson and the impact that Brexit would have on the Good Friday Agreement with Ireland, stating via tweet that any US-UK trade deal most “be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border.” Similarly, from an interpersonal perspective, while President-elect Biden may be “one of the few world leaders [Boris Johnson] hasn’t insulted,” he has insulted Biden’s former boss and close friend, President Obama, speculating that his “part-Kenyan” ancestry explained President Obama’s decision to remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. Democratic insiders have clearly not forgotten, as President Obama’s former deputy national security adviser Tommy Vietor demonstrates:
Thus, like many British Prime Ministers before him, Boris Johnson must not make the mistake of treating the special relationship as a given, as the deck is stacked against not only him personally, but also the United Kingdom as a whole. The question must then be, “what value can the United Kingdom add to the superpower’s foreign policy portfolio?”
The most obvious policy area is on climate, especially as the United States works to regain leadership ceded to China during the Trump years. The upcoming United Nations COP26 on climate, which is to be held in Glasgow, is an opportunity for the United Kingdom to flex its diplomatic and economic muscle on environmental issues, and the new environmentally-conscious American administration may be eager to collaborate.
Should President Biden revive President Obama’s second-term “pivot to Asia” strategy, the United Kingdom may avail itself to project power in the Western hemisphere. The new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and strike groups might be deployed in place of or in coordination with the Americans to manage mutual concerns in North Africa or the Persian Gulf.
Similarly, Britain and the United States naturally see eye-to-eye on Russia and the People’s Republic of China. Britain was effective in quickly mobilizing counterintelligence capabilities following the poisoning of Sergei Skripal on British soil, and its diplomatic capabilities were on full display in marshalling opposition to the People’s Republic’s National Security law in Hong Kong. Efforts to lead Western/NATO responses to Russian mischief would help Britain’s standing considerarbly, as President Obama sought a closer relationship with Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel because of the Federal Republic’s geopolitical importance in the Western relationship with Russia.
What is clear is that Britain’s position on the world stage is threatened. Failure to add value to the US-UK relationship will leave Prime Minister Johnson sidelined as the United States cultivates a new “special relationship” with Angela Merkel (and/or her successor) and Emmanuel Macron. Brexit and decoupling with the rest of Europe may cause the US-UK relationship to become less salient to the United States. Without significant changes to the transatlantic dynamic, President Biden might merely pay lip service to the US-UK relationship to satisfy Westminster’s “deep neurosis” while the real policy on the environment, trade, and international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF is made with Berlin and Paris.
Having said this, President-elect Biden has a far less transactional approach to foreign policy than that of his immediate predecessor, and this positive-sum outlook may mitigate the factors presented here. However, should Britain not add value to the relationship, it risks becoming a permanent junior partner to the United States, akin to the relationship between Eisenhower and Eden, as it becomes more reliant on trade with the United States post-Brexit. The message for Whitehall, then, is simple: It’s time to prove your worth.