Politico published a story yesterday with some encouraging news that the Biden administration is interested in repealing existing authorizations for the use of military force (AUMF) and creating a “narrow and specific framework” to govern U.S.
Great article. In general, how do you expect the Biden admin to compare to trump on foreign policy? I guess more dovish on Iran and maybe more hawkish on Syria? Which do you prefer — I know you don’t like either
Thanks for the question. On a handful of issues, I had expected Biden to be significantly better. On Yemen, he has been an improvement, but not as much or as quickly as I would have liked to see. On Iran, he has so far been something of a disappointment because I expected he would move more quickly to reenter the agreement, but I assume he is still going to break with Trump's Iran policy eventually. He is an improvement with respect to arms control, as we can see with the New START extension. His approach to war powers so far is troubling and not much better than Trump's. Syria policy seems unchanged right now, and that's bad. Foot-dragging on getting out of Afghanistan will likely make Biden worse than Trump was if he doesn't withdraw on time. He isn't catering to the Saudis quite as much, but he isn't doing much to pressure them, either. The Venezuela policy appears to be identical, and so far Biden is just ignoring North Korea when he needs to be talking to them. Overall, I'd give him a C right now with a lot of areas that need improvement and several issues that he is mishandling pretty badly.
Great article. In general, how do you expect the Biden admin to compare to trump on foreign policy? I guess more dovish on Iran and maybe more hawkish on Syria? Which do you prefer — I know you don’t like either
Thanks for the question. On a handful of issues, I had expected Biden to be significantly better. On Yemen, he has been an improvement, but not as much or as quickly as I would have liked to see. On Iran, he has so far been something of a disappointment because I expected he would move more quickly to reenter the agreement, but I assume he is still going to break with Trump's Iran policy eventually. He is an improvement with respect to arms control, as we can see with the New START extension. His approach to war powers so far is troubling and not much better than Trump's. Syria policy seems unchanged right now, and that's bad. Foot-dragging on getting out of Afghanistan will likely make Biden worse than Trump was if he doesn't withdraw on time. He isn't catering to the Saudis quite as much, but he isn't doing much to pressure them, either. The Venezuela policy appears to be identical, and so far Biden is just ignoring North Korea when he needs to be talking to them. Overall, I'd give him a C right now with a lot of areas that need improvement and several issues that he is mishandling pretty badly.