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Friends, Enemies, and Frenemies
As I study the prospect of Joe Biden becoming President, I realize he will probably try to turn our national security on its head. Following the policies of Barack Obama, he will work to ingratiate himself to the rest of the world, following the theme of globalization. He has already stated his intention to re-enter the JCPOA.
But cozying up to the Iran regime isn’t the only danger we might anticipate. He’s signaled his intention of re-building a relationship with China—you know, the country who regularly stole intellectual property and indulged in a trade imbalance with us—until President Trump came on the scene.
Before Joe Biden takes the helm, it will be critical for our government to prioritize our international relationships. In politics, there are no friends for life, nor enemies for that matter. And some countries, for one reason or another, are on the fence, due to their choices or ours, about the kind of relationship they want to have with us.
Trying to be loved and accepted by the world is not only dangerous, but it’s a waste of time. Many countries will see our deferring to their expectations as a demonstration of weakness and ambivalence. That’s not the way successful diplomacy works. Our friends need to know that when push comes to shove, we will back them up; our enemies need to know that a red line (that will be honored) may be drawn if they endanger us or our friends. We are a powerful country and own that reputation.
So, in the name of national security, it’s important for us to clarify who our friends are; Trump let countries know that they would benefit from aligning with us. Our enemies only need to look at China to know that the penalties can be damaging if they try to take advantage of us; Iran learned from the devastating sanctions they incurred.
As you look at the world, who do you see as our friends? Who do you see as our enemies? And even more intriguing, who do you see as our “frenemies,” those who have damaged their relationship with us or with others, but have the potential to work themselves back into our good graces?
Most importantly, what other damage do you see Biden committing in his new role, and is there a way to stop him or minimize the threat to our national security?
Published in Foreign Policy
I thought about them after banging out the list. Yeah, they’re in.
Check out the Mike Lee sponsored legislation on lifting caps on “green cards” for India. The country has influence through Indian-Americans.
War. China will threaten Taiwan, and when Biden’s weak response becomes apparent, they will invade. Biden will then have to decide whether or not to retaliate. If he does (which I think is unlikely), we’ll be at war with China.
Heck. In a way, we already are . . .
Joe Biden is Xi Jinping’s dog. Xi has far more on him than the contents of Hunter’s laptop.
Trump made a trip to India to encourage them to bring business to our states. He also talked them into giving us a lot of HCQ which the Dems immediately poo pooed. Some of these visas might be necessary for the business investments India is doing.
H1Bs are for people staying long-term while waiting for green cards. The system is broken, but the key is green card reform, not eliminating visas entirely.
Romney and Lee are both in the same cesspool. The difference is Romney is a bigger chunk.
Based on the persons I’ve seen in the D.C. area working for IT contractors, I was pretty surprised to hear Indian nationals have issues with quotas on green cards. I’m not that familiar with the process, though, other than to see Lee receiving plaudits from the Indian American community. I predict within a generation, they will yield some serious clout.
They do now, only Lee will never benefit from it. Durbin will. Lee is a tool.
It takes about five years to get a green card. An H-1B visa is good for three years. Therefore people over here need to get a renewal. Your current employer is the only one who can sponsor you to get a renewal. You can’t really get a new employer in that time. The system is ripe for abuse by the employers.
Lee should either lengthen the H-1B visa and make it transferrable, or shorten the time that it takes to get a green card, or both. Doing that would keep the suits from using the current setup as a sort of indentured servitude.
Lee won’t do that. Lee is the dullest chisel in the toolbox.
We need fewer lawyers and more workers in Congress.
Hey! Maybe we could start a visa program for foreign politicians.
I’d think it would be secondary-level players in the hemisphere partnering with larger ones to create problems, such as with China or Iran in Venezuela or Nicaragua. Maduro or Ortega by themselves might not have the power or money to create new problems in Central or South America, but they could allow other nations to extend their influence closer to U.S. borders.
A modern version of indentured servitude . . .
If they were shocked by Obama I suspect they have seen nothing yet compared to Biden
Taiwan should not be left out. Certainly South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Enemies foreign and domestic.
Gotta import more Democrat client/voters.
This is where I am hoping that the addition of Amy Coney Barrett to SCOTUS will make it harder for Biden to do DACA by executive fiat.
Donald Trump earned respect by his honesty with allies and enemies alike. Shocking, I know! But, he said out loud on more than one occasion that he’s going to look to the interests of the United States and he expects other countries to do likewise for themselves. How refreshing.
Taking us out of the Iran Deal and the Climate Accord was just that — doing what was in our interests. I expect Biden to do the opposite in every case. And in doing so, he will invite war. He’s been a fool on foreign policy for as long as I can remember. He should read Art of the Deal and learn something.
It’s 7 December, and I am thinking of WWII. When you think of WWII, name the English-speaking country that was NOT an ally.
Point!
Though most of the rest (Australia, New Zealand, Canada) were still part of the British Empire, albeit with some self government. They were there because the UK was there.
The British PM Lord Palmerston said: Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.
If you can articulate what yours are, without reference to allies, its a good point from where to start identifying which other nations’ permanent interests you can meaningfully ally with for the moment, and at what price for them and for you.
And which nations’ permanent interests are unavoidably in conflict with yours?
Though I would niggle with Palmerston’s take – polities have no permanent friends or allies, only permanent interests. A polity’s interests (often) don’t align with its nation’s people’s.
Also – we have many permanent interests. When it comes to Iran and the US – India’s permanent interest in defense (served by aligning with the US and buying military equipment) is in conflict with its permanent interest in energy (Iran was a cheap and dependable source of oil).
Very good points, @zafar. Interests are the most important factor, everything falls out from there.
Not only those reasons, @westernchauvinist, but people have this foolish idea that other countries will like us if we cater to them. Instead, they will think we are betraying our own citizens! Everyone should take care of their own; if they did (without violating other countries), the world would be a better place. Thanks.
I suspect his response will be strong. He will deploy a family member to pickup a few businesses deals then all will be well.
Why does he just not stand down ICE and let it rock? It is not like the states election boards have any restrictions on who votes or does not. Actually I have considered renouncing my citizen ship and becoming illegal so I have some rights.
America has no real international interests outside of hemisphere. And that’s OK.
What we do have is a great big principle-agent problem. Where as the interests of the people who make up our government are not inline with the interests of the country. The quote-unquote international order is in the interests of a lot of government bureaucrats and functionaries, lobbyists, and politicians. But they aren’t actually in the nations interests, and based upon the past 4 years, they are not exactly responsive to democratic control.
Spot on, @guruforhire! We have people who will be in charge who are not only elitists and utopian believers, but they don’t care about the people in this country. Unfortunately I expect things to get worse with the administrative state in charge.
Ireland has a very noisy hard- Left which despises any Capitalist country, with particular hatred for the GOP. The rest of us are more concerned with our GDP, to which American corporations contribute handsomely through foreign direct investment, also providing many jobs. There are also close cultural and familial ties.Few Irish people don’t have close relatives living in the US ( some undocumented, but that’s a different story). We closed down the country for a day of mourning after 9/11.
We definitely are close allies.