3 Key Themes from President Biden’s First Foreign Policy Speech

3 Key Themes from President Biden’s First Foreign Policy Speech

On February 4, 2021, President Joe Biden delivered his first foreign policy speech. Here are 3 key themes from his speech and ways President Biden can build on those themes:

Ending Involvement in the War in Yemen

President Biden made important commitments to roll back U.S. support for the war in Yemen. These include:

  • Ending offensive arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE

  • Appointing a special envoy to Yemen (Timothy Lenderking, a career foreign service officer) to advance peace talks and oversee the drawdown of the war

U.S. arms sales and intelligence-sharing with the Saudis and Emiratis has played a key role in Saudi-led aggression in Yemen, a humanitarian crisis that has claimed more than 233,000 lives. Yemeni activists and progressives around the globe have pushed for these actions and are calling for further commitments from President Biden, including:

  • Pressuring Saudi Arabia and the UAE to end the violence

  • Expanding humanitarian aid to Yemen and providing vital resources, like food, water, clothes, and medicine

  • Ending the classification of the Houthis as a terrorist group

  • Lifting the blockade around Yemen and open land and sea ports

  • Supporting Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ War Powers Resolution (passed by Congress with bipartisan support in 2019 but vetoed by President Trump) to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen

Committing to Diplomacy

President Biden claimed “diplomacy is back.” Diplomacy will be vital to combat global challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, right-wing violence, racism, and nuclear threats. President Biden can build on this commitment in his first budget by:

  • Reducing the Pentagon’s $740 billion annual budget

  • Prioritizing the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Aid and Development, which have a combined budget of $56 billion - less than 8% of the Pentagon Budget

  • Investing in economic development and global health, which President Biden mentioned in his speech

Putting People First

President Biden said, “Foreign policy is domestic policy and domestic policy is foreign policy.” He also called for “foreign policy for the middle class.” For too long U.S. foreign policy has been driven by corporate interests, which hurt working families. President Biden can create a foreign policy that puts people first by:

  • Prioritizing working people instead of corporations in trade deals and ending the global race to the bottom

  • Confronting the climate crisis in cooperation with international partners

  • Combating fraud and corruption by eliminating global tax havens for the rich

Mariam Malik