Biden has more important things to do than the international agenda
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While Washington has been engulfed in its own internal turmoil and struggles in recent weeks, in other parts of the world, Russia and China are increasing their influence.
Joe Biden promised the world the return of America. But while he is busy with internal problems, Beijing and Moscow are increasing their influence on the international arena, writes The Wall Street Journal… Will the States be able to resist this?
Games of Putin and C
For the second time in a year, Russia has deployed thousands of troops and armored vehicles near the Ukrainian border. In response, the Biden administration dispatched William Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and former ambassador to Russia, to Moscow to signal to the Kremlin that the United States was watching.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping missed two of the most important international events of the year – the G20 summit in Rome and the large international conference on climate change in Scotland – partly out of fears over the coronavirus, but also in the name of preparations for the Communist Central Committee meeting. party this week, which will pave the way for him to an unprecedented third term as leader of China. China’s intimidation of Hong Kong and Taiwan continues vigorously, and the Pentagon said in its annual report on the Chinese military that Beijing is expanding its nuclear arsenal so rapidly that it could have twice as many nuclear warheads in coming years than previously predicted.
Is it far from the war?
None of this means that some kind of conflict is approaching, or that the United States should strive for one. Indeed, as Burns’s trip to Moscow suggests, it’s a sign of the need for a superpower dialogue that kept the old Cold War with the Soviet Union from getting hot. However, it is also a sign that the rest of the world is not standing still while the US is consumed by its own internal enmity.
China and Russia are dangerous for at least one similar reason: both countries are powerful and at the same time at least somewhat vulnerable. For example, China is facing major economic problems at home and is entering a delicate transition of power, while at the same time it is building up its military power and becoming more assertive in its foreign policy. This is a potentially dangerous combination.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to rebuild Moscow’s sphere of influence in the neighborhood, using two of the main tools at his disposal: the still powerful military and energy exports, which can be used to reward or punish countries across Europe as the Kremlin wishes. This combination is used both to intimidate Ukraine into submission, and to assimilate and defend the authoritarian, Kremlin-friendly Belarus regime from any European Union interference as it cracks down on its internal opponents.
Weak Biden
These alarming tendencies are not that they are not connected with official Washington, which is in a state of struggle and deep division. President Biden talked about showing the world, and America’s authoritarian opponents in particular, that a reunified American government can move decisively forward in demonstrating the power of democracy. It is unlikely that such an image has emerged in the past few weeks. Moreover, the picture of a divided America, distracted and consumed by its own internal conflicts, invites adversaries to adventurism – they may assume – perhaps wrongly – that Washington is unprepared to deal with global problems.
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