N°12-02/04/2021 The new President of the USA J. Biden has summed up his strategy in a phrase that he repeats over and over again: "America is back".
It follows his predecessor’s (D. Trump): "America first". In both expressions there is the same desire for imperialist domination of the world. A few tactical shifts at the margins to better assert the imperialist role of the USA.
To make this quite clear J. Biden used the phrase "America is back" twice at the February 19 security conference in Munich, – a view that 70 Republican officials, headed by the former defense secretary Colin Powell, had previously shared in a support letter to J. Biden.
A few statements by the new President showed a slightly different approach from his predecessor: he affirmed his desire to remain in the World Health Organization, to return to the Paris climate agreement (which, let us remember, is not binding) and announced the return of the USA to the UN Human Rights Council ... but as an observer. However these differences do not carry much weight against the backbone of the US global strategy.
An increased military presence in the world and a colossal and growing budget of over $ 730 billion supported by Democrats and Republicans.
The "National Security Strategy" defined in 2017 has been validated. Thus, J. Biden intends to maintain the US military presence in the nearly one thousand bases they have around the world.
He does not intend to end the regime of illegal sanctions they impose on 39 nations and which are modern forms of what is called "asymmetric wars". Secretary of State A. Blinken has also clearly indicated that the sanctions would be "targeted more effectively" in particular against Venezuela and Russia. In his speech J. Biden stressed the US priority against nations that threaten to "divide the world", more clearly that challenge US hegemony. It is of course China but also Russia. From this point of view, the USA and its firmest supporters in Europe are trying to prevent the realization of the "Stream 2" gas pipeline which is to supply part of Europe with Russian gas on the pretext of the Navalny affair while in reality it is a question of slowing down a competitor in energy.
J. Biden endeavored to underline the strengthening of NATO, whose scope of action has clearly gone beyond Europe with military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya … He welcomed the financial effort made by European countries to strengthen military budgets (see the article https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/monde/monde/1331-l-otan-une-alliance-militaire-pour-la-guerre ). He hinted at the imminent accession of Georgia and Ukraine, which would significantly modify the balance of power in Europe vis-à-vis Russia.
For Africa, the new administration wants to extend its military hold based on its command in Africa: AFRICOM which has deployed troops in 22 countries and intervenes militarily in 13 of them. Major joint maneuvers with African countries are planned for 2021 (African Lions 2021).
In the Middle East, support for Israel is confirmed and the rights of Palestinians will continue to be violated. Although Saudi Arabia is asked to switch from offensive to defensive in Yemen, the arms sales will not end! Iran is the subject of much attention and the idea of renegotiating the nuclear deal with Iran is based on the demands that Trump tried to impose before withdrawing from the deal, that is to say the extension of the agreement beyond nuclear issues to include conventional armaments. In Syria, and the recent US bombardments are proof of this, the US does not intend to disengage. On the contrary an increase is expected in the number of troops engaged who illegally occupy, arm and support the terrorists fighting for the benefit of Western countries to bring Syria to its knees.
About Latin America, during the election campaign Trump and Biden stormed at Cuba and Venezuela with a clear objective: to end these regimes by all means. The rise of social democratic forces in Latin America does not change the general doctrine of the USA. They intend to keep considering Latin America as their backyard and control its general direction for their benefit.
In Asia, the United States take the view that China remains the major rival that should be curbed.
So, we must expect the continuation of the policy initiated by Trump and a rise in tensions between these competing powers within the imperialist system, as well as a strengthening of the US military presence in Asia, already largely engaged by several presidencies. Therefore there will be no meaningful change, neither military nor economic, between the policies of Trump or Biden.
It is possible to say that the orientations of the new President Biden will not jostle, but on the contrary will accentuate the trends that have emerged in the policy of US imperialism since the end of the Second World War. The objective is to maintain a dominant position within the imperialist system in the face of rising powers, such as China, that contest its hegemonic position.