Time to Rebuild Institutions

On November 7, the Associated Press called the 2020 presidential race for Joe Biden. While Trump's legal challenges remain, he is unlikely to reverse the call. After the largest election in a century, Trump appears defeated.

As is always true of the winner, the work does not stop with victory. Biden has inherited much in the way of work. The international position of the United States, once nonpareil, is deprecated. Allies no longer trust our word and enemies do not fear it. Our leadership, political and moral, has atrophied from Trump's odium for international bodies.

The US left the Paris Accords, UN Human Rights Council, UNESCO, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Trump impugned the necessity of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while suggesting Russia should be readmitted to the G7. He publicly took the word of President Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies. His administration blocked new appointments to the WTO. He asked China to buy soybeans to support his reelection. And he threatened Ukraine to obtain compromising information on the Biden family.

I will not belabor the point: Trump has damaged our institutions-- domestic and international. The question is now: what will Biden do about it?

President-elect Joe Biden is, undeniably, an international institutionalist. That is, he believes nations ought to work together within international agreements and frameworks to settle disputes and uphold standards. 

These agreements, rather than strictly effectuating a binding code of law, set precedents and provide symmetric information between states. A cursory glance at international dispute settlement would lead one to conclude such processes are merely talk. Trump certainly thought so, and treated them as such. 

The reality is, as always, nuanced. These institutions, like the WTO, NATO, and the JCPOA, represent opportunities for the US to build coalitions and create compromise. Without them, states lack a common arena in which to debate, resolve disputes and discourage violence. Far from so much bureaucratic bloat, rules, norms, and standards are the complex--and fragile--web which holds nations together.

Joe Biden understands this. He has promised to reenter the Paris Accords and some form of the JCPOA. He has alluded to a stronger and less anxious NATO alliance. He is in tune with our South Korean allies on the importance of  nuclear deterrence. He understands we cannot punitively withhold judge appointments to the WTO. And he knows that the US cannot push for its interests without membership in international bodies.

To that effect, Biden could rejoin the UN Council on Human Rights to flood it with young and sharp American minds. He could breathe new life into the State Department and rescind the president's power to fire employees as a matter of political preference. Biden could renegotiate a new Trans-Pacific Partnership with an eye to environmental protections and human and labor rights. He could rejoin the Paris Accords. He could restore international faith in American leadership.

None of this is guaranteed under a Biden administration, but it is more likely. Biden believes not only in the importance of international institutions, but in America's centrality to them. The US is the largest economy, the oldest democracy, issues the global reserve currency, and has the most advanced military capabilities in human history. It is a massive country which needs a competent and disciplined leader.

We the American people have an obligation to push Biden to restore leadership and discipline to the White House and the international system. None of this will be easy. We will not always succeed. 

But with Biden at the helm, we can begin the work.