“Made in America” doesn’t rhyme with internationalism

US President Joe Biden entered office pledging to reverse the nationalist agenda and the protectionist policies of his Make-America-Great-Again predecessor and to re-embrace the internationalist approach pursued by US leaders since 1945.

Indeed, the new Democratic president vowed to work together with America’s global partners to fashion multilateralist strategies in responding to potential international military and economic crises and avert the kind of rifts between the US and its allies that occurred under former Republican President Donald Trump. And Biden did seem to be fulfilling those pledges when it came to foreign policy priorities, by taking steps to repair relations and work closely with America’s allies across the Pacific and the Atlantic. In particular, the Biden administration has proved to be very effective in collaborating with its European partners in employing their collective military and economic power to punish Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine. In the process, the US not only helped Ukraine defend itself against Russia, but also strengthened and even expanded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It amounted to a master class in how to conduct modern diplomacy.

Yet the Biden administration wouldn’t receive high marks when it comes to its geo-economic policies, raising major doubts about its commitment to internationalism. It has pursued an economic nationalist approach that on some issues seemed to be even more aggressive than that followed by President Trump. Hence the trade battles between China and the US that evolved under President Trump have been transformed during the Biden presidency into a full-blown geo-economic war between the two powers.