Yesterday, I wrote an article about the progress @POTUS & @VP have made on the int'l front this past week. I observed that it was the result of sound diplomacy, hard work, experience & vision. I immediately got slammed by some folks for suggesting I was being blindly supportive.
That's Twitter, I suppose. I seldom respond to such nonsense. But, in this case, I think it is worth taking a moment to say that the reason I wrote what I did is because...it's true. The past week shows a Biden team that knows what it's doing on foreign policy.
The list of accomplishments is material. Restored relationships with allies. Revitalized commitments to the G7, NATO and our relationship with the EU. A major and meaningful commitment on vaccines for nations in need that led to a G7 wide commitment of 1 billion doses.
A move to refresh the Atlantic Charter. Progress on nettlesome trade deals (like that between Airbus and Boeing.) A vision for NATO that addresses emerging challenges including singling out several from China that were a priority for the Biden team.
Sending a powerful message to Putin even before tomorrow's summit that the western alliance is back, the US is back, that our commitment to the intl system is reaffirmed and that our tolerance for Russian abuses is low (they figure even more prominently in the NATO communique.)
Taking major steps to repair the damage done to the alliance, to key relationships (like those with Germany and the EU), by the previous administration. On the VP's trip to Mexico and Central America she also achieved real concrete progress.
She re-engaged in a constructive way with Mexico after the threats, demagoguery, human rights violations at the border and sheer insanity of the prior administration. She got AMLO to agree to a cabinet level security dialogue that is essential and was by no means assured.
She got the Mexicans to agree to work to help manage the border problem and to assist with our efforts to help address the sources and causes of migrant flows in Central America. She relaunched programs in Central America on those efforts.
She announced new centers for helping to legally process refugees. Real US funding was restored to these issues and they were prioritized once again after critical programs were shut down under the prior administration.
The problems the VP tackled were not easy ones. They have bedeviled every administration in my adult lifetime. The Congress has run from them as if they were radioactive. But @VP and the administration have run straight at them, taken them on despite their political complexity.
The same is certainly true with President Biden's trip to Europe. Trump did huge damage. It won't be fixed overnight.But recent polling data (see the Pew Poll cited in my article) shows leading nation's confidence in Biden as light year's above that for Trump. That's no accident.
They see what is happening. These trips are not photo ops. They are carefully orchestrated involving weeks or months of consultation and negotiations with allies--consultation and negotiation of a type that did not take place for the past four years.
The Biden team did not achieve every goal they set--no administration does. But they achieved most of them and the some total of those achievements, they benefits of methodical, professional blocking and tackling on the diplomatic front is apparent to our allies & adversaries wor
In fact, when taken together with the quality of the team put in place at the outset, they way they have managed the crises they faced from the global COVID crisis to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in recent weeks, from resetting the expectations of China to...
...systematically rejoining the intl system (from agencies like The Who to the Paris Accords to re-engaging in negotiations with Iran), the progress in just five months has been striking--even more so when the heavy lift and the progress at home is taken into consideration.
Priorities have been reset (like placing climate crisis atop our list of global concerns and restoring the international order) and issues have been framed (like the battle between autocracy and democracy at home and abroad.)
This last point illustrates another key point that has not gone unnoticed around the world. This administration is returning to alliances with a keen awareness of our own limitations and missteps at home and abroad. These are not the unilateralists of the Bush era.
These are not the narcissists of the Trump era. And they act with more skill and confidence and clarity of vision than the Obama or Clinton teams certainly did in their first terms in office. None of this is opinion or spin.
The facts are there. This administration, led by the president with the most foreign policy experience of any in modern history, is getting off to a better start than any of its predecessors in the last 30 years. It's not perfect.
We all may have disagreements with them. I personally wish they had done more to stand up for the Palestinian people. I think sometimes the rhetoric around China has been a bit overheated. I have been disappointed the steps to restore democracy through accountability...
at home have not been prioritized as I would like. But, day-by-day, month-by-month, issue-by-issue, the team assembled by @POTUS and @VP and led by people like @SecBlinken and @JakeSullivan46 has not only done remarkably well, they have set a new standard for how to do it right.
It's not flashy. It doesn't take place in the Twitterverse (Trump's Twitter disasters with Mexico and our allies could fill a volume alone). It's just the way professionals do it. The way it is supposed to be done. And I think that's worth celebrating.
Here's the article from yesterday. thedailybeast.com/heres-what-bid…
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