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US-China relations
OpinionComment
Tom Plate
Tom Plate

Opinion | US foreign policy needs a script rewrite under Antony Blinken and Joe Biden

  • The problem with US foreign policy right now is not its secretary of state but its continuing ways of thinking about the rest of the world
  • A happy ending without seemingly inevitable US-China conflict is out there, but the US should start by rewriting its own playbook

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pauses during a group photo following the inaugural Trade and Technology Council meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 29. Photo: Bloomberg
Tom Plate
US foreign policy since the September 11 attacks looks rather like an animal caught in the headlights of fast-moving contemporary history that won’t slow down for anyone or anything. If we can agree on this general picture, then we must also agree that no one American, whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump, can be blamed.
US presidents of whatever political party or calibre inherit the ill winds of the past as well as coming storms. Since January 20, US President Joe Biden has made some mistakes, but he has hardly been as flawed as Trump. Biden’s unbecoming predecessor will be judged by history as the maker of too many bad deals for America, especially regarding China.

Standing against this tattered tapestry is Antony Blinken, Biden’s impressive secretary of state. Blinken has brought to his prestigious position a high level of intellect, an affable but determined bearing and an understated projection of the sense of dancing in the middle of a period of history that is trickier to navigate than usual.

Unlike his blustery predecessor Mike Pompeo, Blinken is well groomed for the position of foreign policy head by virtue of education, dedication and subtlety, as is Biden’s UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. They both are products of America’s foreign service system, which is underrated but now more valuable than ever.

Nevertheless, one competent secretary of state, however talented and focused, does not a new foreign policy make as that person is not the president. Constitutionally speaking, the executive branch is the big decider.

All major foreign policy decisions are presidential decisions, a point Ted Sorensen – the great aide to John F. Kennedy – rightly used to hammer home to his students.

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