Biden & '100 Days' Speech, Op-ed

U.S. President Joe Biden addressed Congress to mark his first 100 days in office; this speech constitutes an established tradition in US political life, but this time the speech passed amid exceptional circumstances imposed by the health crisis and the nature of the current international system.

In this speech, Joe Biden tried to reassure the American citizen who suffers from chronophobia, uncertainty, as well as the internal and international economic repercussions of the Coronavirus pandemic. The American president said literally, "Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation: America is on the move again."

"We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America," he added, stressing that this national effort must now focus on rebuilding the economy and fighting inequality through "the largest action plan since World War II".

Moreover, the US President called for raising taxes on corporates and wealthier Americans in order to finance his plan to help families.

Joe Biden reassured Americans that "more than half of adults have received at least one dose of Coronavirus vaccine" and that "deaths among the elderly have decreased by 80% since January." "There is still work to be done to overcome the virus," he cautiously added.

More than 96 million people, representing about 30% of the population, have received the two doses of the vaccine. In a highly symbolic decision, the health authorities announced that the immunized Americans no longer need to wear masks outside, except in crowded places.

To stabilize social peace and mitigate the repercussions of the killing of George Floyd more than a year ago, the US President called on the Senate to pass a major bill for police reform bearing the name of African American George Floyd. The President appealed to Congress for a final vote on this text, which was adopted in the House of Representatives (HoR).

On the international side, he dealt in particular with the issue of the US's ties with China, which is a subject that preoccupies observers. The US president stressed that he would not "seek a conflict with China," but at the same time he expressed "readiness to defend US interests in all fields."

"In my discussion with President Xi Jinping, I told him that we welcome the competition and that we are not looking for conflict. But I made absolutely clear that I will defend American interests across the board,"  said Biden.

But despite this diplomatic talk, we are certain that the enormous economic, military and technological capabilities of the two superpowers make the current tension more dangerous than the one that occurred in the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union.

This is the view of senior strategists who are afraid of the next stage, especially the analysis of the American diplomat Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under former President Richard Nixon, and the maestro of the historical rapprochement between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s.

Addressing a forum hosted by the McCain Institute think-tank, Kissinger emphasized that this is "the biggest problem for the United States and the entire world as well."

Although the risk of nuclear conflict was great during the Cold War, current technological advances in nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence, two sectors led by the United States and China, have "doubled the end of the world risk."

For the first time in history, humanity has the ability to self-destruct in a limited time. The two powers developed technologies of power unimaginable seventy years ago.

In his view, the nuclear issue is now added to the technological issue, which, in the field of artificial intelligence, is based on the fact that man becomes a partner of the machine, and that the machine can develop its own judgment, and in a military conflict between two technological superpowers, this matter is of great importance.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was not economic power, and its capabilities were reduced to military technology, but China today possesses both economic and military power, and here is the difference: Without a permanent and rational dialogue between America and China, the next world order may have dire consequences.