Every U.S. president comes into office with big dreams, only to be bludgeoned by the realities of international politics.
At the end of the day, presidents are forced to prioritize goals, restrain ambitions and seek a framework that helps them organize their foreign policy. George W. Bush, for instance, stuck with his global war on terrorism mindset. Barack Obama’s approach was crafted in part to keep the United States from repeating the mistakes of the Bush years. Donald Trump’s “America First” weighed heavily on transactional dealings.
President Joe Biden’s organizing principle could best be summarized as defending the so-called rules-based international order, or the global order that the U.S. built after its victory in World War II. Biden and senior advisers such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeat the phrase constantly in public speeches, press briefings and official government documents. As the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy articulates, “We will partner with any nation that shares our basic belief that the rules-based order must remain the foundation for global peace and prospeperity.”
U.S. officials as well as their colleagues in Europe seem to genuinely believe what they’re preaching. Most of the rest of the world, however, tends to view the scripture as bunk—a collection of rules and norms that are designed to be universal but in reality are highly selective depending on whether or not you’re an ally with the West. Countries in the so-called Global South, the vast swaths of Asia, the Middle East Africa and Latin America that make up most of the world’s population, hear the term “rules-based order” and react with a mix of eye-rolls and resignation.
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