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In Brief: Biden’s Last Chance at Foreign Policy Moves

November 27, 2024
In Brief: Biden’s Last Chance at Foreign Policy Moves
In Brief: Biden’s Last Chance at Foreign Policy Moves

In Brief: Biden’s Last Chance at Foreign Policy Moves

Robert Manning, Yun Sun, Jeremy Shapiro, and Zaha Hassan
November 27, 2024
A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***President Joe Biden has now entered the “lame duck” period of his presidency. He has only a few weeks left to make foreign policy moves that could cement his legacy. We asked four experts to consider what international steps the Biden administration might take — or not take — before Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.Robert Manning Distinguished Fellow Strategic Foresight Hub Stimson CenterWill Biden use his “lame duck” status in his waning months in office to try to “Trump-proof” — or at least burnish — his foreign policy legacy? In recent weeks, he has taken steps pointing in that direction.Ukraine is Exhibit A: Ostensibly in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin further globalizing the Ukraine war by deploying North Korean troops, Biden approved Kyiv using Army Tactical Missile Systems to strike inside Russia. In addition, he has approved the use of antipersonnel landmines in Ukraine. This appears aimed at bolstering Kyiv’s leverage in future negotiations and perhaps to tip the scales among Trump advisors — some of whom want to pull the plug on Ukraine aid, while others want to step up aid to Kyiv as bargaining leverage.At the same time, in Asia, after trilateral meetings with South Korea and Japan on the margins of a recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, the White House announced the creation of a U.S.-South Korean-Japanese secretariat to institutionalize trilateral security cooperation. Similarly, NATO recently approved a new command base in Germany to coordinate training for Ukrainian troops. Biden could launch both.In the Middle East, he could revisit decisions against cutting off military aid to Israel for violating U.S. humanitarian

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A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***President Joe Biden has now entered the “lame duck” period of his presidency. He has only a few weeks left to make foreign policy moves that could cement his legacy. We asked four experts to consider what international steps the Biden administration might take — or not take — before Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.Robert Manning Distinguished Fellow

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