World Needs Consistent US Leadership Rachel Loeb, ’24

World Needs Consistent US Leadership

Rachel Loeb, ’24

Through recent years, the political divide in the United States has become increasingly polarized. This divide leads to dramatic policy changes from one administration to another and undermines our leadership abroad. The United States has a crucial role in the international community, and the inconsistency of successive administrations has diminished our influence on the world stage. While some prominent Republicans support an isolationist foreign policy, the United States is only strengthened by restoring its leadership abroad.1 Given polarization and its effects, we must restore our leadership within the global community and thereby strengthen our nation. One issue detrimentally impacted by America’s frequent policy shifts due to polarized leadership is global climate change. In 1997, President Clinton recognized this issue, initiating the effort to organize international conferences, negotiating to ensure that nearly every country would be on board with the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement mandating nations to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. Despite his efforts, the U.S. Congress formally rejected the protocol in 2001 under different leadership.2 The pendulum swung back in 2015 under President Barack Obama when the United States led the charge against climate change through the signing of the Paris Agreement. This was the first legally binding climate agreement that set a framework for how countries must reduce emissions. It was signed by the European Union and 192 countries; the only holdouts were Iran, Eritrea, Libya, Yemen and Iraq, which has since joined the agreement.3 But President Trump’s victory marked another change in the U.S.’s approach to climate policy. In 2017, the Trump administration gave the United Nations official notice that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement. As promised, the United States became the first nation to formally withdraw from the agreement in 2020, causing international condemnation and slowing progress in the fight against environmental destruction.4 America was a key architect in crafting the agreement, but it left because of the lack of ideological consistency in consecutive administrations.

Not only did this result in disappointment within the United States, but many world leaders also spoke out against America for this action. While reaffirming Germany’s commitment to the agreement, Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany at the time, stated that “The decision of the United States to pull out of the Paris Agreement is utterly regrettable, and that is me choosing very restrained language. The Paris Agreement continues to be one of the cornerstones of global cooperation, and this agreement is indispensable to reach the goals of the 2030 agenda.”5 The United States is the world’s second-largest carbon emitter, contributing around 12.6% of total global emissions,6 and since American pressure got nearly all other countries to comply with the Paris accord in the first place, its leaving sets a terrible and hypocritical precedent. Others may follow suit. Fortunately, current President Joe Biden moved to re-enter the climate agreement and reassert America’s commitment and leadership to the climate change issue.7 However, America’s changing policy has damaged its relationships with key allies and will take valuable time to rebuild.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the United States was ill-prepared to fight the virus because the disease was so heavily politicized. Instead of working with the international community to resolve the pandemic, the United States blamed its own failures on WHO, the World Health Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for international public health. President Trump claimed that WHO had attempted “to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.” President Trump officially notified the United Nations that he planned to leave the World Health Organization, a decision that would threaten America’s influence as well as jeopardize global health.8 America has shipped over 540 million free vaccine doses to a total of 112 low-income countries. This is part of the Biden Administration’s commitment to donate at least 1,100,000,000 doses, which will, in turn, stop the spread of this terrible disease and prevent the emergence of new variants, perhaps even deadlier than the delta variant and more virulent than the omicron variant.9 Given its intellectual and economic resources, the United States needs to take major action on global issues, such as pandemics.10 Divided leadership and inconsistent policy hurt not only domestic issues but also poses a global problem as it threatens public health.

Another major issue on the global stage and subject to many disputes across parties is the proliferation of nuclear arms. In 2002, the George W. Bush administration alerted the world to the suspected acquisition of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear bombs or chemical arms in Iraq. His Secretary of State, Colin Powell, informed the United Nations, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld launched a full-out war against Iraq.11 These claims were later determined to be unfounded and Powell later admitted that “the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and in some cases, deliberately misleading” but the concern of hostile or unstable countries and terrorist groups acquiring nuclear weapons remains.12 Consequently, it is vital that the international community monitor the nuclear capabilities of countries in a preventative and peaceful way.13 The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was an agreement between Iran, the United States, and several other countries in 2015. It asserted that Iran would close its nuclear program and allow international inspections of its facilities in exchange for the end of sanctions. The relief of these sanctions would stop the $160 billion loss in oil revenue and would release their assets in the United States, around $100 billion, which had been frozen in the 1979 Iranian revolution. It is vital

that Iran not become a nuclear power, as this would further destabilize the Middle East.14 Nevertheless, President Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, putting the safety of countries such as Israel in jeopardy. President Trump claimed that he would get better terms than the original deal had, but he could not compel Iran to negotiate. President Trump’s unilateral decision to leave the deal meant that Iran could once again enrich uranium and plutonium, the needed components of nuclear weapons. President Biden is attempting to rejoin the treaty, and according to a senior State Department official, Biden is prepared “to make the political decisions necessary to achieve that goal.”15 While the nuclear deal has its limitations, it is necessary in ensuring the safety of the world, and the United States has to lead the way in guaranteeing international peace, rather than undercutting itself at every opportunity.

While President Biden is trying to restore the partnerships that had been broken during the Trump Administration, doubts about America’s reliability linger in the minds of the European public. They fear that if our agreements were broken under one president, it would be possible for a future president to do the same and undo any pacts Biden makes. A survey of over 15,000 Europeans conducted by the European Council of Foreign Relations revealed that public sentiment towards the United States has worsened across the 11 countries surveyed. When asked if “the identity of the U.S. president affects [their] relationship with the U.S.,” 68 percent agreed or strongly agreed, compared to the 7 percent who disagreed or strongly disagreed. Accordingly, 54 percent agreed or strongly agreed that “the world is in a worse place because of Trump’s presidency,” relative to only 18 percent who disagreed or strongly disagreed. These statistics show that Europeans blame Trump’s administration for the inability to address the world’s problems and that their relationship with the U.S. is no longer immutable but rather conditional on the policies of the president at a given time.16 European leaders like French President, Emanuel Macron, reflect these views which are held by his constituents. In response to America’s uncooperativeness at the 2017 summit of G7, an organization of seven of the world’s most developed economies, Macron announced, “The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be.”17 The only way to allay these fears in both leaders and the general public is through consistent U.S. policy across presidencies, including presidents from both political parties.

Since its birth, the United States has been a model of freedom and democracy, and its influence in international affairs is undeniable. However, to maintain our strong presence, we need to unite under a consistent foreign policy that represents our values. Our commitment to foreign affairs must be a priority lest we lose our credibility and allow our relationships with our allies to deteriorate. Going forward, America needs to be a more active and trustworthy ally in order to protect global health and security.

1 Stephen M. Walt, “America’s Polarization Is a Foreign Policy Problem, Too,” Foreign Policy, March 11, 2019, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/11/americas-polarization-is-a-foreign-policy-problem-too/. 2 “Kyoto Protocol Fast Facts,” CNN (Cable News Network, April 7, 2022), https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/world/kyoto-protocol-fast-facts/index.html. 3 Lisa Friedman, “U.S. Quits Paris Climate Agreement: Questions and Answers,” The New York Times (The New York Times, November 4, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/climate/paris-climate-agreement-trump.html. 4 ibid 5 Arne Delfs and Rainer Buergin, “Merkel Says Climate Fight Is ‘Irreversible’ Despite U.S. Leaving Paris Agreement,” Bloomberg.com (Bloomberg, June 2, 2017), https://www. bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-02/merkel-says-climatefight-is-irreversible-despite-u-s-pullout. 6 “Carbon Footprint by Country 2022,” World Population Review, accessed May 16, 2022, https://worldpopulationreview. com/country-rankings/carbon-footprint-by-country. 7 Nathan Rott, “Biden Moves to Have U.S. Rejoin Climate Accord,” NPR (NPR, January 20, 2021), https://www.npr.org/ sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958923821/ biden-moves-to-have-u-s-rejoin-climate-accord. 8 Pien Huang, “Trump Sets Date to End Who Membership over Its Handling of Virus,” NPR (NPR, July 7, 2020), https://www. npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/07/888186158/trumpsets-date-to-end-who-membership-over-its-handling-of-virus. 9 “U.S. International COVID-19 Vaccine Donations Tracker – Updated as of May 20,” KFF, May 20, 2022, https://www.kff.org/ coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/u-s-international-covid-19-vaccine-donations-tracker/. 10 Amy Maxmen, “What a US Exit from the WHO Means for COVID-19 and Global Health,” Nature News (Nature Publishing Group, May 27, 2020), https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586020-01586-0/. 11 Ahsan I Butt, “Why Did Bush Go to War in Iraq?,” Opinions | Al Jazeera (Al Jazeera, March 20, 2019), https://www.aljazeera. com/opinions/2019/3/20/why-did-bush-go-to-war-in-iraq. 12 David Corn, “Powell Admits False WMD Claim,” The Nation, June 29, 2015, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ powell-admits-false-wmd-claim/. 13 Ahsan I Butt? 14 “Iran Nuclear Deal: What It All Means,” BBC News (BBC, November 23, 2021), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middleeast-33521655. 15 David E. Sanger, Lara Jakes, and Farnaz Fassihi, “U.S. and Allies Close to Reviving Nuclear Deal with Iran, Officials Say,” The New York Times (The New York Times, February 1, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/iran-nucleardeal-biden.html. 16 Mark Leonard and Ivan Krastev, “The Crisis of American Power: How Europeans See Biden’s America,” ECFR, January 19, 2021, https://ecfr.eu/publication/the-crisis-of-american-power-how-europeans-see-bidens-america/. 17 Damian Paletta, David J. Lynch, and Heather Long, “France’s Macron Threatens Rare Rebuke of U.S. at G-7, Trump Fires Back,” The Washington Post (WP Company, June 8, 2018), https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/frances-macron-threatens-rare-rebuke-of-trump-at-g-7-says-us-faces-isolation/2018/06/07/f73f3de8-6a99-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story. html.

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