USA (bbabo.net), - President Joe Biden's trade and foreign policy is a "big hole" in long-term US strategy in the realities of a new geopolitical era, according to an article in The Economist. As the author notes, Biden called the current decade "decisive", but this label hardly reflects the moment - the beginning of the era of great power rivalry, when the world order created by the Americans can be "violently destroyed" by Russia and China.
At the same time, Russia, from the point of view of America, is an "urgent" problem, while the "more serious threat" comes from China, the only country capable of overthrowing America from the "throne of the preeminent world power."
These transformations come at a time when the relative weight of the United States in the global economy is declining, and China's GDP already exceeds that of the United States, if measured by purchasing power parity, the newspaper recalls. Moreover, Western support in the global South is fragile: many countries see themselves as victims of a distant conflict in Europe, moreover, they do not want to be in the epicenter of the Cold War between America and China.
At the same time, Biden "softened" his desire to divide the world into "democracy and autocracies" by holding a series of major regional summits, the publication continues.
“The big hole in his strategy is the lack of an attractive economic and trade policy that could further tie allies and friends together,” the Economist points out.
There is “a lot of protectionism” in US foreign economic policy under Biden: subsidizing green technologies and semiconductor production, as well as restricting China’s access to advanced chips.
"These policies are causing tension with European and Asian allies by restricting access to the US market, limiting exports to China and diverting investment," the paper said.
In addition, another "ongoing concern" is related to democracy in the West itself, especially in the US, where politics remains "highly polarized," the publication concludes.
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