A Look Into Biden’s Expected Foreign & Security Policy, Op-ed

The appointments made by US presidents in the foreign, military, and security fields indicate the type of strategic approach that will be adopted and the set of priorities they believe in.

We can remember that during the era of George W. Bush, the new governors were the masters of strategic art who are qualified to formulate and implement the country's foreign and security policy; The foreign policy during that period and their military intervention without accurate "strategic glasses", has had its bad consequences on the White House and US foreign policy, as well as the future of national security.

In the meantime, confusion overwhelmed strategic work, as members of the diplomatic and national security team were working at different levels, and they had different roles in the state ... This confusion has led to the deviation of some American institution's roles, thus, a weakness in production and profitability; this is the hidden aspect in some American reports, and what strategy theories in the international relations field warn about ...

President-elect Joe Biden is well aware of this problem, and that the modern strategic structure has four features: volatility, apprehension, complexity, and ambiguity; This structure requires a new strategy in dealing, as well as appointing of people who could adopt this new method.

Through appointments related to the foreign, military and security policies of US President-elect Joe Biden, and through his media remarks, we can conclude that his approach will be based on a "carrot and stick" strategy in dealing with various challenges in the Middle East, especially the threat of Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons.

I am certain that Biden aims, through the nomination of Anthony Blinken for the position of Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan as his national security advisor, to focus more on diplomacy; Blinken, a legal man of Jewish parents, is one of the strongest supporters of pluralism, in contrast to the "campaign of maximum pressure" on Iran and the uncompromising policy toward China that was adopted by the Trump administration.

Blinken (58 years) is one of Biden's key foreign policy advisers and was the second official in the US State Department under former President Barack Obama when Biden was serving as Vice President.

In an interview with CNN, last October, he stressed the need for America to restore its leading position on the international scene.

"What has happened now is that President Trump waived these responsibilities and put us in a state of a complete withdrawal of our allies and partners from international organizations and agreements."

He added, "The problem is when we are not engaged, nor leading the way, what happens is other countries will try to take our position, or at least there will be a gap creating chaos and other bad things."

Also, choosing former CIA Deputy Director Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence could mean investing more in the use of advanced technology in fifth-generation wars, which are hybrid wars that combine conventional and unconventional warfare components; Perhaps her value lies in electronic wars and similar ones.

The current determinants of the quality of the war are beginning to change radically from what we are familiar with and what the great classical war strategists saw, such as the Chinese Sun Tzu or the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz who liken war to a largest-scale duel and compares it to a struggle between two competitors.

Thus, we see him mocking the theory of war without bloodshed, saying: “Don't talk to us about leaders who win without bloodshed.”; However, today the electronic or viral attacks go beyond the ravages of classic war and could cause the world to stop ...

Also, naming retired General Lloyd Austin as Minister of Defense means benefiting from decades of military strategic experience, especially in the American Central Command concerned with the Middle East region.

The choice of former National Security Council advisor Susan Rice, who also worked as an American envoy to the United Nations (UN), to lead the White House domestic policy council, will make her gets more closer to the inner circle of the white house's West Wing, where all internal and external decisions are crystallized and taken...