I have a new piece for @TheAtlantic on how Joe Biden has a personal foreign policy doctrine a mere few months into his presidency: the United States is in a competition of government systems with China that it is at risk of losing. 1/6 theatlantic.com/international/…
Biden speaks about this all the time, in formal remarks and off the cuff. It is a marked departure from his statement in the campaign that China is not competition for us. 2/6
Some in his administration / party disagree and hope his views are not settled while others just don't grasp what he's saying. The result is that the administration as a whole is not yet converting his doctrine into a strategy but that may come in time. 3/6
Meanwhile, America's European allies get nervous with talk about ideological competition so Biden has reframed it a little in his Wash Po oped to be a more affirmative case about democracy rather than about competing with China per se but that is what it is about. 4/6
Biden has identified a crucial geopolitical development-- the old international order has come apart and we now have two broad constellations of democracies and autocracies. The key questions are: what does our constellation look like and how does it engage with the other. 5/6
Those are the questions Biden's doctrine sets him up to address. 6/6
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
