Even Biden's most committed supporters have difficulty finding silver linings in black clouds that dominated foreign affairs during Joe Biden's tenure
As US President Joe Biden's administration enters its last weeks, debates about his presidential legacy continue unabated. Biden's detractors label him as one of America's worst presidents [1]; his supporters, not surprisingly, claim the opposite. [2] Most commentators, because domestic policy is any president's focus, emphasize Biden's domestic policy initiatives as evidence of his greatness. Foreign policy is a different matter, and even Biden's most committed supporters have difficulty finding silver linings in the black clouds that dominated foreign affairs during his tenure. Three foreign policy lowlights can illustrate how disastrous 2024 was for Biden and the Democratic Party:
- Gaza
In foreign policy, 2024 can be remembered as the culmination of both Biden's presidency and the downward spiral that the Democratic Party had been in for the past decade. When the New Year dawned this past January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of annihilation and mass murder in Gaza was already three months old. But because of the impending US election and the unrestrained, unquestioning support that most Americans display for Israel, Biden could not, and would not, do anything to rein in Netanyahu.
Biden's policy towards Gaza was always marked by double talk. On the one hand, Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken constantly told the press and public that strong stances against Israeli excesses would be taken; on the other, Biden would never do the single thing that would truly curb Israel's ability to operate in Gaza – enact a weapons embargo. Even the one much-promoted US initiative to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, the pier project, was an embarrassing failure. [3] Eventually, Biden and the Democratic Party's failure to take a moral stand against Israel's Gaza policies would spark a wave of unrest on US university campuses, peel voters away from the party, and probably cause Kamala Harris's defeat in (at least) Michigan. This lack of ability to identify ethically correct policies, and of the will to insist on those that have been discerned, exposed the hollow heart, the moral emptiness, that now smothers the Democratic Party's soul.
- South Korea
President Biden came to office in 2021 promising to reinvigorate global democracy by initiating annual "Democracy summits." From the beginning, however, Biden's pet project was contentious because his discourse clearly did not match the conferences' reality. Many countries with questionable democratic credentials were invited, while Türkiye, a democracy and a NATO ally, was pointedly excluded.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol played prominent roles in the 2023 and 2024 editions of President Biden's Summit for Democracy. [4] In fact, Yoon's role was given so much attention that South Korea was made co-host for the 2024 edition, and Yoon made a joint statement with Biden. But in December 2024, Yoon declared martial law in South Korea, then retracted it, which did not save him or his successor from being impeached, plunging South Korea into a type of political crisis the country had not seen since the 1980s. [5] Biden's insistence on promoting Yoon as a democratic stalwart once again exemplified his questionable judgement. Yoon's popularity waned during his tenure because of his policies, and a number of controversies have plagued his administration. [6] Apparently, Washington's intense concern with China warps its judgement of Beijing's neighbors in the same way that the focus on Israel distorts Washington's ability to identify its true interests in the Eastern Mediterranean.
- Syria
Early December's stunning events in Syria collapsed several more illusions that had entranced the Democratic Party for more than a decade, as well as the Biden administration. Former President Barack Obama infamously chose not to institute a no-fly zone that could have protected Syria's rebels, and his train-and-equip program disintegrated after a half-hearted attempt proved fruitless.
At the same time, Obama made negotiating a deal concerning Iran's nuclear weapons program a centerpiece of his attempt to build a presidential legacy. But why Obama chose Iran as his interlocutor was never totally clear. Iran's activities across the Eastern Mediterranean made it a pariah state for most people in the region; generally, only Shia and groups espousing varieties of Shi'ism – such as the Bashar al-Assad regime's Arab Alawites/Nusayris – saw Tehran as a viable regional actor, or took the religious regime in Iran seriously.
The reasons became manifest in December when the Assad regime fell in 10 days under pressure from a well-organized fighting force. Both Tehran and its main regional proxy, Hezbollah, were exposed as paper tigers. This episode also revealed that almost everything that Washington claimed about Syria and Iran – Russia's impenetrable air defenses, the Syrian rebels' malfeasance, Tehran's intentions and capabilities, the intractable situation on the ground – have been at best exaggerations, at worst completely erroneous. In the case of the SDF, an organic branch of the designated terrorist group PKK, US officials have lied to their citizens for 10 years. [7] Biden now watches helplessly as these mirages evaporate.
- Role reversal in Türkiye-US relations
Consequently, after all was said and done, Joe Biden's December 2019 statements about Türkiye to the NYT editors [8] turned out to be "quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass." [9] Fittingly, Biden, whose Senate and vice presidential responsibilities supposedly made him an expert on Türkiye, [10] witnessed a dramatic expansion of Türkiye's regional stature despite his malevolent intent.
The crisis in South Korea, and the jubilation and renewed hope in Syria, illustrate Biden's (and Obama's) flawed and visionless policies well enough. But Türkiye has also replaced the US as the focus of the region's democratic aspirations. Ankara does not just speak the rhetoric of democracy; it also provides the training, advice, resources, and even weaponry to help democracy emerge from the ruins of the region's dictatorships, and to remedy historical injustices.[11]
So, after Trump's inauguration, Biden can go eat gummies with James Carville. [12] Eight years ago, when Trump shocked the world by defeating Hillary Clinton, I feared disasters; now, I'm left thinking only "at least we don't have Biden for four more years." The downward spiral in American politics thus continues, gaining momentum like Gogol's Russian troika, and now with four more years of the Trumpian circus and an opaque, ominous future.
[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-reacts-biden-dropping-out-worst-president-rcna162936; https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-one-worst-presidents-history-1-5-democrats-says-1929080
[2] https://time.com/7174296/president-biden-legacy/; https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5048539-biden-presidency-transformative/
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/23/they-miscalculated-gazas-floating-aid-pier-failing-to-deliver-in-rough-seas; https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4901438-stark-lessons-from-the-failure-of-the-gaza-pier/
[4] https://cop-demos.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/summit-democracy-2023; https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/29/joint-statement-by-president-biden-and-president-yoon-on-the-third-summit-for-democracy; https://www.idea.int/events/3rd-summit-democracy
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/world/asia/south-korea-impeachment-yoon-explained.html; https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/south-korean-president-defies-summons-over-martial-law-declaration-probe-for-4th-time/3437098
[6] Written less than a year after Yoon took office: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/world/asia/yoon-biden-south-korea.html.
[7] https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/dunya/setf-icra-direktoru-mustafa-obama-ve-biden-yonetimlerinin-suriye-politikalari-uzerlerinde-tasiyacaklari-bir-utanc/3436440 -- The video is in English with Turkish subtitles.
[8] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/analysis-joe-biden-confronts-turkey-in-the-vast-external-realm/1857519
[9] T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men."
[10] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/analysis-2020-us-presidential-election-suddenly-clarity/1798460
[11] https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/analysis-turkey-the-new-great-arsenal-of-democracy/1910049
[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/us/politics/james-carville-harris-biden-trump.html?searchResultPosition=3
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu's editorial policy.
