It’s Biden’s turn to make America great

When international relations expert Professor Siphamandla Zondi mentioned that America will always pursue its own interests in its foreign policy no matter who is in power, it sounded a bit out of line considering the gentle political slant of Joe Biden.

When Biden launched his first military attack, in Syria last week, just a little over a month since he was inaugurated as the US’ 46th president, amid tension sparked by a pro-Donald Trump insurrection a fortnight earlier, I thought about Zondi.

He was so right.

America will always be America, whether it is the conservative Republicans or the liberal Democrats in the White House.

Their presidents always pursue the same goals and only the rhetoric and emphasis differ. As Zondi told me, US foreign policy and, especially, its rhetoric will change under Biden but the status quo will remain when it comes to China and Russia.

Zondi said Biden would not alter the US’ attitude towards China and would seek US dominance in the world like his predecessors, but would be friendly to Africa.

Indeed, Nondaba, we sensed what you said when Biden’s Secretary of State Antony J Blinken made it clear that Trump was correct in his attitude towards China and when Biden told the African Union: “I am here to help.”

According to North-West University politics professor Theo Venter, the Biden approach would change from the inward-looking “US First” approach of Trump to the restoration of multilateralism, including rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO).

Since then, Biden has rejoined the WHO, undertaken to revive the cross-Atlantic Western partnership with Europe and restore the US to its status as world leader.

He has extended an olive branch to Africa, offering to assist the continent come out of the quagmire of disease, poverty and conflicts.

The recent US bombing in Syria left no doubt in my mind that a Democratic president will never only pursue peace.

While a Republican president will always be emphatic and more aggressive, as typified by both the Bushes and Trump, a Democratic will mix diplomacy with aggression in the interests of America.

That’s what I call Biden’s America first. Trump may not be there with his America first economy, but his America first mind will remain in Biden’s aggression.

That’s how their approaches differ. Biden, while a man of multilateralism, would keep American aggression but selectively apply it where US security interests are at stake in security and economic affairs.

China remains an economic threat to the US and so are Syria and Iran on the security or military side. This is what Zondi said were “tried and tested long-term US foreign policy interests that are neither Democratic nor Republican”.

This is all about outboxing main rivals China and Russia. Russian has interests in Syria and the Syrian attack could provoke Russia’s retaliation.

And any toe-to-toe encounter between US and Russia is a threat to the world peace.

When the US changes its president not everything will change – the aggression and desire for world domination will remain no matter who captains that ship.

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