U.S. Foreign Policy Under Biden

President Joe Biden took office with an ambitious foreign policy agenda summed up by his favorite campaign tagline: “America is back.” Above all, that meant repairing the damage done to America’s global standing by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. During his four years in office, Trump strained ties with America’s allies in Europe and Asia, raised tensions with adversaries like Iran and Venezuela, and engaged in a trade war with China that left bilateral relations in their worst state in decades.

In principle, Biden’s agenda is rooted in a repudiation of Trump’s “America First” legacy and the restoration of the multilateral order. That was reflected in his early moves to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization, and reestablish U.S. leadership on climate diplomacy. The COVID-19 pandemic has also offered Biden an opportunity to reassert America’s global leadership role and begin repairing ties that began to fray under Trump.

But in practice, some of Biden’s priorities bear a close resemblance to Trump’s agenda. His “foreign policy for the middle class,” which ties U.S. diplomacy to peace, security and prosperity at home, has been described as a dressed-up version of Trump’s emphasis on putting U.S. interests above its global commitments. Biden also followed through on Trump’s deal to withdraw from Afghanistan without consulting or coordinating with Washington’s NATO allies—and paid a political cost for the collapse of the Afghan government and chaotic evacuation that ensued. And on other issues—like his approach to immigration and border policies—Biden has not demonstrated any urgency to make immediate changes. Similarly, he only belatedly lifted controversial tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports as well as, more recently, the most draconian of Trump’s sanctions on Cuba.

Despite the rhetorical commitment to repudiating Trump, Biden may find it difficult to fully restore a pre-Trump status quo. Countries may no longer be willing to follow the U.S. lead on democracy promotion after the erosion of America’s democratic norms during the Trump era. And Europe, in particular, has recalibrated its relationship with the United States and may no longer be willing to align with America’s approach, particularly the hardening of relations with China. Nevertheless, as the war in Ukraine and the crisis leading up to it highlight, there is still high demand among allies, partners and other countries around the world for decisive U.S. leadership in times of crisis.

WPR has covered U.S. foreign policy in detail and continues to examine key questions about will happen next. Will Biden maintain a tough approach on China, and at what cost? Will his administration be able to resurrect the nuclear deal with Iran? And will the war in Ukraine prevent Biden from shifting the geographic focus of U.S. foreign policy to the likely centers of global challenges and opportunities in Asia and Africa? Below are some of the highlights of WPR’s coverage.

Our Most Recent Coverage

Biden Finally Realized He Can’t Ignore Cuba Any Longer

President Joe Biden has finally learned the lesson his 11 predecessors had to grudgingly accept when it comes to Cuba: Some U.S. interests can only be advanced by engaging with Havana. After a lengthy policy review, the U.S. announced it will relax the Trump-era sanctions that had the greatest direct impact on the Cuban people.

Bilateral and Regional Policy

Following the erratic and inconsistent foreign policy of the Trump administration, Biden was in a position to make some meaningful shifts in bilateral relations with a range of partners. But his administration will continue to face some familiar limits. Though Biden has pledged to make human rights and democracy central planks of his foreign policy, in practice he has often continued to put U.S. interests first.

• Why the new U.S. approach to supporting post-conflict states might not go far enough, in Libya Will Put Washington’s New Peacebuilding Strategy to the Test
• What Biden’s “back to basics” approach to the Middle East is lacking, in The U.S. Needs a ‘Big Idea’ to Frame Its Middle East Policy
• How the U.S. can support Sudan’s pro-democracy movement, in The U.S. Must Raise the Stakes for Sudan’s Coup Leaders
• Why Qatar is set to play a big role in Biden’s plans for the Middle East—and beyond, in Qatar Has Officially Come Back in From the Cold

Alliances and Partnerships

One of Biden’s first tasks was to begin rebuilding trans-Atlantic relations. While his early efforts to shore up the partnership suffered from an apparent divergence in geopolitical ambitions—particularly when it came to articulating a collective approach to China—Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has catalyzed consensus and cohesion within NATO not seen since the end of the Cold War. Meanwhile, repairing relations with America’s existing Asian allies, as well as deepening new partnerships such as the so-called Quad, have proven to be easier tasks for Biden.

• How the U.S. and Japan can boost their already solid partnership, in The U.S.-Japan Partnership Is Healthy, but Has a Long To-Do List
• Why Biden’s appeals for support on the war in Ukraine have fallen on deaf ears in the Middle East, in The Middle East Isn’t Toeing the U.S. Line on the War in Ukraine
• Why the trans-Atlantic alliance has emerged as an early winner of the standoff with Russia over Ukraine, in What We’ve Already Learned From the Russia-Ukraine Crisis
• Why the U.S. has so much difficulty reassuring its partners in the Middle East about its future role in the region, in The Paradox at the Heart of U.S. Engagement in the Middle East

Strategic Competition and Rivals

Biden has declared that China is America’s “most serious competitor” and has vowed to confront Beijing on a range of issues, from human rights to intellectual property. His early responses to China over its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and politicians in Hong Kong and recent cyberattacks, as well as to Russia over a cyberespionage attack and its meddling in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, suggested he was willing to take a tough stance with Beijing and Moscow. His rapid and robust punitive sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leaves no more room for doubt. But Biden’s determination to compete aggressively with U.S. rivals as well as his commitment to democracy promotion are certain to bump up against the need for practical cooperation to address shared global challenges.

• What it will take for the U.S. to sideline China in the competition over semiconductors, in The U.S. Can’t Win the Battle Over Semiconductors Alone
• How the war in Ukraine will affect the U.S. strategic competition with China, in The War in Ukraine Will Complicate U.S.-China Relations Even More
• Why the Biden administration needs to rethink its approach to North Korea, in North Korea’s Latest Missile Tests Reflect Kim’s Shifting Priorities
• Why the Pacific Islands are the latest arena of U.S.-China strategic competition, in The U.S.-China Competition Comes to the Pacific Islands

Trade and Aid Policy

With his “foreign policy for the middle class,” Biden has promised to focus on how to reorient U.S. engagement abroad to address middle-class economic concerns back home. When it comes to trade, that will mean making sure U.S. policy contributes to domestic economic renewal. How to manage that without resorting to Trump’s unilateral protectionist measures will be one challenge ahead.

• Why the geoeconomic competition with China shouldn’t take a backseat to geopolitical rivalry with Russia, in The West Should Stay Focused on Geoeconomic Rivalry With China
• Why a big part of the solution to global corruption lies in the U.S., in When It Comes to Money-Laundering, the U.S. Is Part of the Problem
• What’s behind Biden’s big infrastructure push in Latin America, in Biden Aims to Challenge China in Latin America With B3W
• How Biden can leverage U.S.-Europe trade relations to address the big challenges both sides face, in Biden Should Think Big on the U.S.-EU Trade Agenda

Diplomacy and Multilateralism

Biden has pledged to pursue a foreign policy rooted in a renewed commitment to values such as democracy, human rights, the rule of law and international cooperation. At the same time, he has recognized how intertwined U.S. foreign policy is with domestic growth. While he has disavowed Trump’s “America First” approach, Biden’s promise to rebuild at home may ultimately guide his multilateral engagements.

• What’s on the agenda for Biden’s first U.N. General Assembly, in A Beleaguered Biden Aims for a Reset at the U.N.
• How Biden’s successful recommitment to U.N. diplomacy went off-track, in Biden’s Honeymoon at the U.N. and the Conflict That Ended It
• How to make sense of Biden’s approach to multilateralism, in The Four Contending Approaches to Multilateralism Under Biden
• What Biden’s early steps reveal about his foreign policy method, in The Five C’s of Biden’s Foreign Policy

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in June 2021 and is regularly updated.