Aidan Carlander ‘22
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“America is Back,” President Joe Biden proclaimed as he launched his foreign policy initiative during his first visit to the State Department, according to CNN. This statement echoes the new president’s promise regarding foreign policy, to return America to its former standing.
After four years of former President Donald Trump, the trans-Atlantic alliance between the U.S. and its European allies is on life support. Trump pursued an unorthodox foreign policy that often eschewed established norms in favor of his “America First'' plan. This plan saw a return to pre-WWII isolationist language and a more lenient approach to dealing with our adversaries. Trump’s refusal to tend to the trans-Atlantic alliance accelerated a trend that was already developing, Europe’s desire to become less reliant on the United States. The Washington Post cites that the US-EU partnership has always had issues, but these concerns were largely put aside as the U.S. helped rebuild the European continent in the wake of the Second World War. Common interests kept the alliance strong, but now Europe is no longer sure it can count on the U.S. to be a reliable partner. These are all factors President Biden has to consider as he tries to rebuild the ailing alliance.
President Biden--himself once chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--is a firm supporter of NATO and strong unilateral ties between the U.S. and Europe, as seen in The Atlantic. However, he faces a daunting task further complicated by a recent EU-China trade deal that suggests Europe is ready to leave the U.S. behind as its primary economic partner. According to Philippe Le Corre, a China scholar affiliated with Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Carnegie Endowment, the trade deal has “damaged the trans-Atlantic relationship already,” as mentioned in The New York Times. This new development, coupled with the damage done to the alliance during the Trump years, leads one to question President Biden’s confidence on the issue. Biden views China as the United States’ primary strategic adversary. The fact that China has already signed an economic agreement with Europe calls into question whether Biden will be able to align Western interests to combat China’s rise.
The deal complicates a potential trans-Atlantic policy towards China. However, the two sides may be able to find some common ground over their concerns about China’s use of forced labor and other egregious human rights violations. The deal still has to be ratified by the European Parliament. This allows the Biden Administration to make its stance on China’s human rights violations clear and lobby members of the EU parliament to take a tougher stand on China’s forced labor practices. According to Foreign Policy, Joseph de Wick and Eyck Freymann contend that “If the Biden administration’s goal is to sink the CAI and pull the Europeans back onside, the Uighur issue is the obvious wedge and the European Parliament their best ally.” The best chance President Biden has to curb Europe’s recent lurch towards China is to put further pressure on the Europeans to recognize China’s human rights violations. If the trans-Atlantic alliance is able to find common ground on the human rights issue, a joint policy could be pursued. Even if the Biden Administration can scuttle the deal before it is ratified, the fact remains that Europe is making clear efforts to achieve strategic autonomy from the US. A human rights focus could begin to repair the trans-Atlantic rift, though there is no doubt that relations will be more complicated moving forward.
It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will be able to maintain the storied trans-Atlantic alliance and with it its place at the pinnacle of world affairs, or if China’s ambition will drive a wedge between the alliance and threaten the United States’ status as the world’s sole superpower. Before too long Europe may have to choose between the U.S. and China because as history has shown us, there is seldom room for two superpowers on Earth. President Biden’s biggest foreign policy challenge will be to reestablish rapport between the U.S. and Europe and to align western interests to contain the growing threat of China.
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