End the Double Standard on Illegal Annexations

Governments that have good relations with the U.S. are held to a different, lower standard than others, and everyone sees this.

Brian Finucane calls on the Biden administration to match its actions on illegal annexations with its rhetoric:

The United States should match its righteous rhetoric on nonrecognition with concrete action that demonstrates that the principle applies equally outside of Europe and even with respect to close U.S. partners. Biden should renounce Trump’s recognition of the Golan annexation and revert to the United States’ historic position that it will not recognize the acquisition of any territory through the use of force.

Finucane is absolutely right about this, and the same could be said about the need to reverse U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. Both recognition decisions were wrong on the merits and contravened longstanding policy. Both decisions were also made for transparently cynical reasons that had nothing to do with the security of the United States. Biden’s failure to reverse these decisions over the last twenty months has been a serious mistake that could be corrected at any time, but we already know that it is a mistake he is not going to bother fixing.