THE INTERNATIONALISTS

An examination of world affairs in the post-Trump years.

Ward, an award-winning journalist specializing in national security, notes that foreign policy played only a modest role in the 2016 election, and Trump limited himself to the lowbrow jingoism that delighted his followers: portraying dictators as admirable leaders who get things done and immigrants as threats to the nation. The author begins with a pertinent question: “How would Biden, a president who came of age in a time when America was the undisputed superpower, attempt to make it genuinely great again—respected and trusted by its allies, feared by its enemies, and no longer willing to kowtow to the despots that Trump seemed so enamored of?” When he took office, the new president and his administration focused on “foreign policy for the middle class,” negotiating a five-year extension of the nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, thus making the world a little safer and suggesting the possibility of productive talks. Soon after, Biden was forced to confront the disastrous situation in Afghanistan. An advocate of reduced involvement in Afghanistan ever since his years as Obama’s vice president, he proceeded with the withdrawal. Despite 20 years and more than $1 trillion of assistance, few had confidence in the Afghan army, but U.S. intelligence determined that it could resist for several years. Few officials foresaw such a rapid collapse, and Ward’s cogent account of what followed makes for simultaneously illuminating and painful reading. But memories of foreign debacles are short, and the administration addressed another massive problem when intelligence officials determined, six months before it occurred, that Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine. Readers know what happened next, so Ward’s expert account of earnest diplomacy and consultation with allies lacks urgency, but history buffs will be fascinated nonetheless.

A sturdy deep dive into the Biden approach to international relations.