How Biden can lead US and world reconstruction

Today’s inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden will usher in momentous change for the better for the United States and a unique opportunity to bolster liberal democracy globally. 

Many say for reasons transcending Donald Trump, liberal democracy will remain in retreat. The storming of the US Capitol by an armed mob incited by Trump has undermined America’s capacity to lead by example.

But the situation has changed rapidly: Many voters have condemned the violence and support the peaceful transfer of power and Trump is losing GOP congressional backing. 

But the legacy of Trump is not the only obstacle Biden must overcome. Many argue that America supported democracy for decades before Trump was elected in 2016. But it backed authoritarian regimes and overthrew elected ones, partly to counter the Soviet Union and for economic self-interest.

The US deposed Iran’s democratic government in the 1950s, facilitated the 1973 military coup against Chile’s President Salvador Allende and similar actions in Central America and the Caribbean, and backs totalitarian regimes in oil-producing nations. 

The incoming administration of Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris has a unique opportunity to conduct a much more consistent and credible policy. As Harvard University’s Joseph Nye recently said, Biden’s policy choices will not be so clear-cut. US broadcasts that support democracy should not be labelled as foreign intervention. 

Eradicate white supremacy

Nonetheless, the Biden-Harris administration should have a comprehensive domestic agenda that prioritises justice and democracy, and finally eradicates America’s “original sin” of white supremacy.

It should vocally advocate liberal democracy as the governance system that can best fulfill universal human aspirations and gradually move to a system of alliances in which its allies are all democracies.

Biden should pursue a basic strategy of respecting all countries’ national sovereignty, except in cases where protecting a group from mass atrocities requires the international community to act. When the United Nations Security Council is unable to reach a decision, armed intervention is inevitable.

The US needs to work with all willing countries in pursuing common goals such as limiting the danger of climate change and providing global public goods, including pandemic prevention. Another high priority is standards and norms to govern cyberspace, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. Arms control treaties in the Cold War probably spared the world nuclear war and are still required.

America still has a lot of soft power — despite Trump’s best efforts to destroy it — and Biden and Harris have the right fundamental mindset to provide global liberal-democratic leadership. They should not let the opportunity pass.

Mr Derviş, a former minister of economic affairs of Turkey and administrator for the United Nations Development Programme, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. © Project Syndicate, 2021. www.project-syndicate.org