They are trying to balance those things, but it is not an easy balance, because obviously the more time you spend on Russia, Ukraine or competition with China, the less bandwidth there is to be doing as much on, say, climate change or preparing for the next pandemic. “They don’t want democracy versus authoritarianism … to be so dominant in terms of the focus of the government that there’s not attention to other important transnational challenges. It’s an ambitious gambit and not one that is likely to be completed in a single election cycle, says Jordan Tama, a professor at American University’s School of International Service.

Blinken holds out hope that the United States can stand up to Chinese challenges while also enlisting Chinese solidarity in curbing global warming. Indeed, climate change provides another tension within the administration’s simultaneous practice of great power competition, whenever necessary, and cooperation, whenever possible. Meanwhile, China is making friends and heavily investing in Latin America while not checking democracy papers at the door. It was not so long ago that the Obama administration - in which, it bears repeating, Biden and Blinken both served - took an opposite path and began to reestablish relations with Cuba. They objected to the exclusion of the autocratic leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. In June, the Summit of the Americas hosted by the United States yielded an embarrassing mini-boycott by leaders of some Latin American countries, as well as harsh criticism from a few who attended.

Biden’s Summit for Democracy in December 2021, when leaders of scores of democracies met virtually to recommit to democratic ideals, ended up raising more questions about who was or was not included (Pakistan and the Philippines, yes? Hungary and Turkey, no?) than concrete results - though the promised “year of action” for nations to achieve democratic improvements is still underway. Still, there have been obvious cases when the full-throated touting of democratic values has seemed the opposite of humble, at best, and hypocritically self-defeating at worst. “Secretary Blinken has been playing a vital role at every stage, helping to build consensus among allies through his personal engagement, deep knowledge of the countries and issues he’s dealing with, as well as his sense of humor and empathy.” … When I’m talking to Brazilians and Indians … Africans and folks from the Middle East, countries are looking around, figuring out their interests and partnering with different countries, depending.”Įven so, American leadership “remains indispensable to NATO’s united response to a more dangerous and competitive world,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told me in an email. This is a multipolar, multi-issue world where you have different orders on different issues. “On a lot of issues that really matter to developing countries, the E.U. “On some issues, like climate, the is the undisputed leader,” she says. But they can’t wind the clock back and pretend the previous four years didn’t happen.įollowing America’s four-year near-absence from the table of nations, leadership roles have been redistributed on specific issues, says Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former senior State Department official and now CEO of the New America think tank. Because the basic principles that sustain peace and security - principles that were enshrined in the wake of two world wars and a Cold War - are under threat.”īiden and Blinken have gone back to the basics of revitalizing core alliances and relationships. “This crisis directly affects every member of this council and every country in the world. “The stakes go far beyond Ukraine,” Blinken said, as the Russian representative to the council shuffled papers and the Ukrainian diplomat twisted a pen cap. He foretold fake provocations and forecast cyberattacks and missile strikes, followed by Russian tanks and infantry rolling into Ukraine.

17, Blinken took his seat before the peacekeeping body, and, in strikingly precise terms, offered his version of the immediate future - “here’s what the world can expect to see unfold” - as if glimpsed in an especially apocalyptic crystal ball. … We made a decision virtually overnight. “We saw the storm really, really coming,” Blinken, 60, told me in late July at his State Department office. Ukraine in Pictures: Three photographers document the toll of an implacable and unforgiving war

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