It is encouraging to see that he has already announced a number of immediate actions on his first day, such as rejoining the critically important Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as reverting the so called ‘Muslim travel ban’. A multilateral reset: Covid-19, climate and migrationįirst and foremost, Biden needs to reverse the missteps of the Trump administration. To this end, we identify some immediate priorities for multilateral cooperation, geopolitics, peace and security to reset the US's role on the world stage, while making note to the longer-term challenges. However they can immediately pick some “low hanging fruit” to signal the US's determination in taking on a renewed global leadership role. Secondly, they must play the long game to ensure sustainable and lasting change. This will mean demonstrating how the ‘America First’ narratives and objectives can be better served by working with others, from securing vaccines to securing borders. A two-pronged strategyįirst, the Biden administration needs to recognise the interrelated nature of domestic and international priorities. And all this in the context of the US’s image being tarnished, hindering its ability to project moral leadership. The relationships will need to adapt to the rapidly changing geopolitical dynamics, shifting power relations, redefined priorities and new actors coming to the fore. They must not only rebuild trust and relationships across borders and institutions, but also rethink existing alliances, priorities and approaches. The new administration can’t simply revert to pre-Trump policies and approaches. These events have shown that the US is not immune from weak governance and failing institutions. But the recent events in the US Capitol reinforce the need for careful consideration of the limits and dangers of American exceptionalism. All eyes are on the new Biden administration to reinvigorate international cooperation as part of the ‘global reset’.īiden’s recent appointments to the State Department and USAID show a clear intent for his administration to re-engage with multilateral institutions and play a leading role once again. The lack of global leadership has been all too apparent. Countries have followed deeply nationalistic agendas, while multilateral institutions have been marred by inertia. The Covid-19 pandemic has put the crisis of multilateralism into stark relief. 2020 has shown us that global problems require global solutions.
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