‘America is back’, Biden says

US President Joe Biden blended the old and the new in his first major speech on US foreign policy on Thursday, calling for a restoration of multilateralism and US alliances but at the same time rolling out a new organizing principle for national security: the welfare of America’s middle class.

In his remarks, which were largely a rebuke to former President Donald Trump, Biden said he had one message for the world: “America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.”

He also said the world should take encouragement from the outcome of the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, provoked by Trump, declaring that Americans have emerged “better equipped to unite the world in fighting to defend democracy—because we have fought for it ourselves,” Foreign Policy reports.

Overall the speech was presented as a mixture of populist, anti-Wall Street ideas stemming from the Democrats’ powerful progressive wing and Biden’s declared intent to make the rest of the world forget the turbulent four years of Trump’s presidency and, instead, to see the United States again as a global leader and force for democracy and human rights.

The biggest news was Biden’s announcement that the United States would stop supporting Saudi Arabia’s military offensive in the war in Yemen, saying “this war has to end.” He appointed a special envoy to the conflict, the career U.S. foreign service officer Timothy Lenderking. He also said he would reverse Trump’s plan to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany.

bright line between foreign and domestic policy. Every action we take … we must take with American working families in mind.” Biden emphasized his focus on domestic economic renewal and his “Buy America” plan, adding: “If the rules of international trade aren’t stacked against us … there’s no country on earth that can match us.”

Biden’s remarks closely echoed the views of Sullivan, who has long criticized previous Democratic foreign policy, including that of former President Barack Obama, under whom he served, for sacrificing middle-class jobs and livelihoods through unfair trade deals that give short shrift to labor. Some of the language showed how deeply embedded progressive ideas have become in Democratic policy. “Our priority is not to get access for Goldman Sachs in China,” Sullivan said at a White House briefing before Biden’s speech.