Threats
Today's D Brief: America, back?; ICBMs, mapped; Island-hopping F-35s; Border troops; And a bit more.
By Ben Watson
February 25, 2021 10:30 AM ET
The D Brief
“America is back,†Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced back when then-President-elect Biden nominated her as America’s next ambassador to the United Nations. The 35-year Foreign Service veteran was confirmed for that UN ambassador job Tuesday on a 78-20 vote in the Senate. And her selection is just in time, the New York Times reports, since “the United States is about to assume the presidency of the 15-member Security Council, the organization’s most powerful body, [beginning March 1], under a rotating system. In that role, she will run the council’s meetings and announce its decisions.â€
What lies ahead: Politico reports “Thomas-Greenfield will confront twin crises — climate change and Covid-19 — and a string of conflicts ranging from a 20-year war in Afghanistan to a 10-year civil war in Syria, from a humanitarian crisis in Yemen to the politically fraught Iran nuclear deal.â€
Counterpoint: “America Is Not ‘Back.’ And Americans Should Not Want It to Be,†Columbia University historian Stephen Wertheim writes in a New York Times commentary. One big pillar on which his argument rests: “America’s version of ‘liberal internationalism’ — code for global military dominance exercised on behalf of liberal values — remains the primary source of decades of foreign policy disaster. Unless Mr. Biden challenges the very premise, he will repeat the same mistakes, now in a more competitive world.â€
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/02/the-d-brief-february-25-2021/172287/
