China, not Biden picks Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, will dictate U.S. foreign policy
America will find itself playing a less dominant role in international affairs — but not because of the outcome of the 2020 election or the previous one.
Nov. 23, 2020, 4:07 PM EST
By Richard Hanania, research fellow at Defense Priorities
In a democracy, every side has an incentive to make the public believe elections have serious consequences. This is certainly true with foreign policy, where the American president has unparalleled power. In part for that reason, Joe Biden repeatedly railed on the campaign trail against President Donald Trump’s international actions and promised a change of course that he argued was essential to maintaining America’s place in the world.
It is important that we not fool ourselves into believing Trump fundamentally changed U.S. foreign policy, nor that the results of the last election will transform the U.S. role in the world.
To help him now that he’s won the election, Biden has named Antony Blinken as his secretary of state and Jake Sullivan as his national security adviser. In contrast with Trump reaching out to the more extreme members of the Republican Party and outsiders for his foreign policy team, Blinken and Sullivan are right in the middle of the mainstream of the Democratic Party, interested in projecting American strength in relation to adversaries, particularly a surging China, but also open to cooperation in certain areas and certainly more inclined to work amicably with allies.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/china-not-biden-picks-antony-blinken-jake-sullivan-will-dictate-ncna1248683
