RINGSIDE

This text is based on an article that appeared in Der Standard on August 26, 2021

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Shedding illusions about Joe Biden

Tobias Endler

August 30, 2021

Joe Biden has been given a whole bunch of nicknames over his career, none of them flattering: Creepy Joe, Quid pro Joe, also, courtesy of Donald Trump, Sleepy Joe.

Ever since he entered office, Biden has earned himself two more monikers: First, Smart Diplomacy Joe. In his inauguration speech in January, Biden told a US audience that America would lead again. In his online speech at the Munich Security Conference a mere four weeks later, and addressing Europeans, he spoke of the need for „the US and Europe to lead again.“ There is a difference, and it is not just semantic. In Brussels, Berlin, and Paris (and still, in London), they like to hear the concept of a team leading. It implies the old familiar idea of „the West“ as a stable alliance of reliable partners who might have their differences on certain issues but will stick together when push comes to shove. And more importantly, listen to one another, and in fact make decisions together and at eye level regarding global challenges, based on a shared set of values.

It is a severe case of nostalgia, and one that befalls Europeans at a regular rate, as of lately when Trump took office and many political leaders on the Old Continent were reminiscing about the time when Obama was in the White House. Nostalgia means glorifying the past in hindsight, which was true in that case, and it means assuming others are looking at the world like you do, which is almost never true, at least not entirely. More dangerously, nostalgia as a longing for a past that never existed will distort your perception of the present. Hence the idea that Biden, Obama’s deputy for eight years, will bring back what reputedly constituted the „West“ before a majority of Americans voted Trump into office. Both assumptions are wrong. The West is dead, and has been for some time – and Biden won't resuscitate it. This much should have been clear from observing Biden’s first six months in the White House.

Alas, it wasn’t.

Consequently, the tragic scenes unfolding at Kabul airport, across the city and Afghanistan as a whole over the last two weeks, took America’s European allies, and Germany more so than anyone else, by surprise even if they shouldn’t have: Biden never questioned Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from the country altogether, he merely postponed the procedure by three months (if only to pay heed to the 20th anniversary of 9/11). European helplessness in the face of events was stunning, a bewilderment that showed clearly in the destitute statements German secretary of state Heiko Maas and secretary of defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer were able to muster. „Nobody saw this scenario coming“, a staff member at the German State Department told Business Insider. Apparently, against all evidence to the contrary (which NGOs in the country had warned about repeatedly in the months leading up to the Taliban takeover), no Western ally saw fit to prepare for just such a scenario that was all but guaranteed once the sole superpower of the alliance was done packing up.

Typically, when we find ourselves in the middle of a self-inflicted problem, in this case, a colossal failure of common sense, the temptation to shift the blame on others is biggest. Thus, Biden has now been awared yet another nickname circulating among decision-makers, policy advisors, and large parts of the press in Berlin and Brussels: Ruthless Joe. This rather unflattering characterization, especially popular these days in the Berlin foreign-policy web which until recently seemed mesmerized by the sheer fact that Biden had made it into office, is based on huge disappointment over what happened. On shame. And, more to the core, on a stubbornly persistent illusion. 

Yes, the Biden administration purports „security in alliances“, and the president himself has repeatedly made the point that „the transatlantic alliance is back“. However, this should not be confused with Washington patiently deliberating foreign policy decisions with Brussels or Berlin, or even waiting for either one’s approval – even less so with regard to America’s longest war that has long lost support at home.

Biden, to be clear, did not kill the West. And neither did Trump alone, when we take a closer look at matters, though he couldn’t help but choke what was already a pretty helpless victim when he got a chance to do so. There is no such thing as „the West“ anymore, and the sooner Europeans realize this, the sooner they can start building a new West, not in opposition to America (which wouldn’t make sense even in a geographical sense), but definitely in „autonomous relatedness“, to borrow a term from psychology. This in turn requires a sufficient level of strength in order to be able to act autonomously, and yes, that includes military strength. It also requires determination on the part of politicians in the lead, which in turn has to be based on and backed up by the credible threat of force with regard to the opponent in question. None of it Europeans could offer at the moment. Fittingly, when Biden vowed retribution for the deadly attack on US forces on August 26 (killing at least 170 others, too, many of whom Afghan civilians), some of America's European allies were seemingly more indignant about Biden's choice of words than supportive of the fact that the most powerful player of the Western alliance promised a swift and tough reaction to what had happened. "We will hunt you down and make you pay", Biden said, and two days later a US drone strike hit Islamic State members in the Nangahar province, allegedly killing one. The method of choice bears a strong connection to Obama's counterterrorism measures, which shouldn't be surprising. And it pays witness to the fact that while the West might still have a lot to offer in terms of values and tolerance to those who are willing to listen, others might read tolerance the wrong way and have to be reminded that it does not equal patient endurance.

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Deutschlandfunk

Andruck, Sendung vom 16.8.2021

Rezension zu Game Over - Warum es den Westen nicht mehr gibt

"Diagnose und Appell - dieses Buch ist beides."