Biden’s Inaugural Address – A Foreign Policy Analysis
In his first address as the 46th US President, Joe Biden had a simple message for the watching world: Trump is gone, and American leadership is back.
In 2,371 words delivered over 21 minutes on the steps of the Capitol – the very steps which two weeks earlier had been inflamed in insurrection – the newly inaugurated President vowed to change the tone, lower the temperature, and turn the page. Inaugural addresses have always been declarations of intentions, a blueprint of what a President desires to achieve in office. Therefore, what can be learned from Biden’s speech from a foreign policy perspective?
Perhaps the most famous inaugural address of the past century was that of John F. Kennedy’s in 1961. His riveting speech focused entirely on foreign policy, his cry to “bear any burden [and] pay any price” an era-defining ode to America’s primacy on the world stage. Biden’s speech was different. He focused not on the convolutions of international affairs but on the “cascading crises” at home. Between the health and economic destruction of Covid-19, political extremism, white supremacy, racial justice movements and a divided nation reeling from a discordant election, Biden’s address left no doubts that the domestic front will be his immediate priority.
And this context has profound implication for American foreign policy. Quite simply, despite his experience as a former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his globe-trotting days as Vice President, President Biden won’t be able to devote as much time as he may like to foreign affairs. The fact that the Democrats maintain the slimmest of majorities in the Senate and House – both of which are up for grabs in the 2022 midterms, an election cycle where the President’s party historically does badly – only reaffirms this reality: if the Democrats want to get things done on the domestic front, this is their window of opportunity.
In this regard, for all the trumpeting of an America returning to lead the international community after a four-year hiatus, it is unlikely that this will materialise. The degree of engagement, at least in the short run, will continue to be secondary to domestic affairs as it was in the Trump era. The only real difference at first will lie in the enthusiasm not the intensity of engagement.
A second foreign policy insight can be derived from the centrality of the aspiration of “unity” within Biden’s address. Indeed, the central theme of the speech was to start the process of extinguishing the partisan fires that are burning American society to ashes. A unifying call, of course, is nothing revolutionary for inaugural addresses: Thomas Jefferson proclaimed that “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists” in 1801 and George W. Bush echoed such sentiments two hundred years later, rejecting “differences [that] run so deep” in order to “work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.” Indeed, it would not be farfetched to hazard a guess that all past inaugural addresses have at least touched on this theme of unity.
Yet unity has never played such a central role before, except maybe for Lincoln’s second inaugural in the midst of Civil War. Usually, a call for unity is a necessary courtesy, a token gesture at the start of a new administration. But for Biden, his “whole soul is in this.” Uniting his people is the primary goal and the ultimate challenge of his administration after a most tumultuous period for America. Unifying is, in many ways, the raison d’être of his Presidency.
The repeated references to Abraham Lincoln, America’s Civil War President, are used to underline the importance of this objective. In referring to the Emancipation Proclamation and “the last full measure of devotion” – the rhetorical highlight of the infamous Gettysburg Address – the 46th President sought to equate America’s present quarrels to its most bitter period, highlighting the gravity of the situation. Be in no doubt, the speech implied, Biden is devoted to resurrecting harmony within America.
Such a meticulous focus on unity, however, raises an important foreign policy implication. In the realm of foreign affairs, from Free Trade Agreements to the Iran Deal to Migration, partisan politics has become a plague; politics no longer stops at the water’s edge to paraphrase Arthur Vandenberg. Therefore, against this context and given his foremost determination to unite the country, his inaugural speech indicates that Biden will not become the activist international operator who aggressively pursues contentious foreign policy issues. Instead, he will focus his energy on the handful of issues which most Americans agree upon: standing up to China, strengthening cyber-security provisions, and continuing to clamp down on terrorism. This is not to say that Biden will shirk away from acting decisively on the international stage when that is required, but rather to argue that if Biden is dedicated to his quest for unity – as his inaugural speech strongly suggests - he will have to extend his bipartisanship to international affairs, and that means prioritising a selected set of issues.
A final insight to draw from Biden’s address is that he will attempt to “repair alliances and engage with the world again,” striking a decisive break from the previous administration. However brief the foreign policy section of the speech, the clarity of the message was unmistakeable: Trump and his policies are no more. The rhetoric was one which turned back the clock in an attempt to revive America’s role as a “strong and trusted partner for peace, progress and security.” And the desire to “lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example” crystallises the overarching values at the core of Biden’s foreign policy. Indeed, this section of the speech highlighted that Biden’s approach is as much about what it is not – Trumpian nationalism – as it was about his own vision. Of course, whether there is still room for US leadership in the international sphere or if the world even wants America’s leadership is a different matter altogether. But the intent to restore American leadership is significant and that in itself is a clear foreign policy shift from the Trump era.
There is just one caveat left to note – that this is currently all rhetoric, and history shows that rhetoric is far detached from reality. Kennedy, for instance, did not end up bearing any burden and paying every price in the name of freedom during his premiership and Obama did not always extend a hand to those adversaries willing to unclench their fists either. Therefore, it remains to be seen if the US under President Biden will lead by the power of their example or drift away from such noble goals, overburdened by the “cascading crises.” Only time will tell.
