President Biden strode into office promising to restore competency and credibility to U.S. foreign policy after four years of President Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy, but several international missteps and crises abroad have undermined his claim.
Mr. Biden has often reacted slowly to crises and offered an ever-shifting, if not contradictory, foreign policy. Questions are mounting about his handling of world affairs, from the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal to the $6 billion hostage deal with Iran that preceded a horrific Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
The president has sometimes misstated U.S. foreign policy, forcing aides to walk back his remarks and suggesting that his expertise isn’t as advertised.
Mr. Biden pledged to return stability to the world stage as president, but the bungled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 shattered public confidence, and his approval ratings never recovered. His foreign policy approval rating is at a net negative 16 percentage points, according to a Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, with 56% disapproving and 40% approving.
“The United States is in a far weaker position today than it was under previous administrations,” said Nile Gardiner, a foreign affairs analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “Biden has projected weakness. You see it in the Middle East, where Iran has gained a lot of ground. You see it in Asia with growing Chinese aggression. The Biden administration is flailing on the world stage.”
A profusion of overseas crises has raised doubts about Mr. Biden’s ability to manage international emergencies.
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The Hamas attack on Israel is the latest threat to Mr. Biden’s foreign policy goals and his reelection message that his competency has made the world safer. Roughly 3,100 people in Israel and Gaza, including 27 U.S. citizens, have been killed. Another 14 Americans are missing, and the Biden administration thinks Hamas is holding some of them hostage in Gaza.
Hamas launched its surprise attack as the war in Ukraine raged on with no resolution in sight. China is continuing its saber-rattling on Taiwan and making inroads in North Africa. Iran has become stronger, and North Korea is testing a missile capable of reaching the U.S.
Referring to China in his address to the United Nations last month, Mr. Biden said his administration seeks “to responsibly manage the competition between our countries so it does not tip into conflict.” On Ukraine, he said Russia alone bears responsibility for the war, and he urged allies to keep providing aid to Kyiv.
“We have to stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” Mr. Biden said.
Some of the regional crises have bled into others.
Many experts say Russian President Vladimir Putin moved ahead with his long-held dream to annex Ukraine after witnessing the messy U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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Mr. Biden’s response has been containment, a Cold War policy relic to deter aggression by diplomatically and economically isolating a nation.
The U.S. has responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Moscow and supplying more than $100 billion in aid to Kyiv. Mr. Biden is also seeking billions of dollars in aid to Israel but has offered hardly any response besides dispatching “hostage experts” to the Middle East to bring the Americans home. He sent a carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean to warn other nations to stay out of the fight.
Some say Mr. Biden’s overall containment strategy has projected weakness on the world stage and emboldened U.S. enemies. Gregg Roman, a political adviser to Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said using a Cold War policy is an inadequate response to today’s threats.
“The U.S. has to have a foreign policy check on itself,” he said. “No more de-escalation and no more containment. The attack in Israel is a moment for Joe Biden to step up and shut Hamas down. I hope he takes it, or history will not forgive him.”
Others say Washington can do little to influence foreign adversaries and that Mr. Biden deserves credit for keeping the U.S. and its allies on the same page in the face of threats.
“These crises are not of the president’s own making, and the implication that the Biden presidency caused these crises is utter nonsense,” said Robert Lieberman, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. “He’s been a steady hand for foreign policy.”
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters this year that Mr. Biden’s “fine feel and touch, particularly on issues of foreign policy and national security, is very, very distinct. And he asks great questions.” He said Mr. Biden “is absolutely confident that he can continue and will continue to do what he has to do to defend our national security interests and advance our foreign policy overseas.”
Republicans are blasting Mr. Biden’s handling of world affairs.
“From his disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal to now, Joe Biden’s weakness has emboldened our enemies around the world. Americans and our allies are less safe under his absent leadership,” said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
The president’s critics blamed him for the events in Israel. They said his recent hostage deal with Iran, which involved a hostage swap, freed up $6 billion for Tehran to fund the Hamas attack on Israel and plan for others.
The White House denied any evidence that Iran funded the Hamas attack and said the $6 billion is sitting untouched in a bank account in Qatar. They said the transfer was necessary to bring home five Americans imprisoned in Iran.
On Friday, Mr. Biden reversed course. The U.S. and Qatar agreed to block Iran’s access to the $6 billion. Biden officials did not say whether the funds were permanently frozen.
Mr. Gardiner said the hostage deal underscores the problem with Mr. Biden’s strategy of pursuing containment instead of taking a more aggressive approach toward adversaries.
“There is a deep-seated appeasement mindset that exists in the White House,” he said. “The unfreezing of $6 billion in reserve is just a stunning act of stupidity, and we will see the long-term results over the coming years.”
Others say Mr. Biden’s most damaging foreign policy blunder, beyond clinging to his containment strategy, has been alienating U.S. allies in the face of crisis.
Less than a month after the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, Mr. Biden angered France. He didn’t inform the longtime ally about Australia’s decision to withdraw from a $66 billion submarine contract with Paris in favor of a deal with the U.S. and Britain.
Mr. Biden’s repeated condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi put him in an unenviable position last year. With energy prices soaring because of the Russia-Ukraine war, he had to travel to Saudi Arabia and beg for an increase in oil production. Just ahead of the midterm elections, Saudi Arabia cut production in a stunning rebuke of the president.
Mr. Biden has declared unwavering support for Israel in the face of the Hamas attacks despite months of hectoring and berating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his judicial reforms.
The criticisms have damaged U.S. relations in the Middle East as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to spin into a regional conflict. It was China that brokered a peace deal this year between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a role that the U.S. traditionally holds.
“He’s treated Israel in an appalling fashion,” Mr. Gardiner said. “He’s kept Netanyahu at arm’s length and has been very cold toward Israel. When you combine that with his appeasement of Iran, it’s been absolutely shameful.”
Mr. Biden’s claim of foreign policy prowess stems from his Washington resume. He spent five years as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was given a significant foreign policy portfolio as vice president for eight years under President Obama.
Yet history has repeatedly found Mr. Biden on the wrong side of major foreign policy decisions.
- In 1975, Mr. Biden opposed aid for the South Vietnamese government, ensuring the North Vietnamese victory and causing a mass exodus of refugees.
- In 1991, he opposed the Persian Gulf War, one of the most successful U.S. military campaigns in history. He later said he regretted his vote and criticized President George H.W. Bush for not going further to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
- In 2007, he called President George W. Bush’s counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq a “tragic mistake,” but the move was widely credited with reducing violence and civil casualties.
- In 2010, Vice President Biden opposed arresting Russian sleeper agents discovered in the U.S., fearing it would start a tiff with Moscow. Mr. Obama overruled him.
- In 2011, he urged Mr. Obama to scale down U.S. troops in Iraq, which he declared “stable and self-reliant.” The move escalated violence and created an opening for the rise of the terrorist group ISIS.
- In 2011, he advised Mr. Obama to abandon a plan to kill Osama bin Laden, one of the administration’s most significant foreign policy victories. Although Mr. Biden told lawmakers in 2012 that he said “Don’t go,” he completely changed his account by 2015 and insisted he told Mr. Obama to “go.”
The foreign affairs blunders inspired Obama Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to say Mr. Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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