My Take | Meat Loaf offers Biden some coalition advice
- US president could do worse than take words of classic power ballad to heart as he seeks to build positions against China, Russia and Iran
As Washington tries to take on Russia, China and Iran at the same time, I am reminded of that 1970s power ballad by Meat Loaf, Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.
US President Joe Biden is old enough to remember it and may want to take it to heart.
Alternatively, if you are not into Meat Loaf (God, I am old!) or hard rock, try this higher-brow analogy. It’s called the “impossible trinity” in international economics, and it says you can achieve two but never all three of the following: a fixed foreign exchange rate, free capital movement (or no capital controls) and an independent monetary policy.
Again, two out of three ain’t bad. But tell that to the Biden White House. There ought to be a similar law that says you can’t go after three great adversaries at the same time. But you can’t fault the dynamic duo of US Secretary of state Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for want of trying.
They want to build a coalition against Iran in the Middle East and another one against China in Asia; and to reinforce the existing alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization against Russia.
Three coalitions of nations with disparate and often opposing interests! It’s difficult enough to successfully maintain one as it is.