Foreign Policy, Global Trade and National Security: How the Biden Administration Plans to Move Forward

Biden Administration Secretary of State Antony “Tony” J. Blinken has built his career on strong expertise in foreign policy, global trade and national security. He has spent nearly three decades working for the U.S. government under three different Presidential administrations in the State Department, National Security Council and more.

Before he was sworn in at the 71st Secretary of State, Blinken served as the senior foreign policy advisor for Biden for President. In this role, he became intimately familiar with President Biden’s foreign policy, the complex nature of the United States’ relationship with China, and the rising threat of techno-autocracies.

Prior to the 2020 Presidential Election, Blinken shared his thoughts on foreign relations and global trade in a discussion with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he offered insights into the Biden administration’s preliminary plans to counteract these issues.

Biden’s Core Tenets of Foreign Policy Are Leadership, Cooperation, and Democracy

“[The President] is going to inherit two things: a divided country and a world increasingly in disarray,” Blinken said.

To put the world back on its axis, Blinken summed up three tenets of foreign policy — leadership, cooperation, democracy — he expects the Biden administration to adhere to. For leadership, Blinken centered on Biden’s plan to re-engage the biggest players on a global scale to move forward.

“We'll try to engage the world, not as it was in 2009, but as it is, as we anticipate it will become,” he said. “Rising powers, new actors who are super empowered by technology and information — we have to bring them along if we're going to make progress.”

Blinken stressed the importance of global cooperation moving forward: “Not a single one of the big challenges we face — climate, mass migration, technological disruption, pandemic disease — can be met by one country acting alone, even one as powerful as the United States,” he said.

“I remain convinced … that the best answer to the multitude of challenges we face is democracy,” Blinken added. “There's a democratic recession. Autocracies from Russia to China … are trying to exploit and add fuel to our troubles. And yet, at the very moment, democracies are looking to the United States to be a leader of the free world.”

The U.S. Must Confront Its Complex Relationship With China by ‘Engaging With Strength’

“China poses a growing challenge,” Blinken stated. “It's arguably the biggest challenge we face from another nation-state — economically, technologically, militarily, even diplomatically.”

He added that we must engage China with strength, moving the relationship forward on our own terms rather than on China’s terms. (Learn more about the complex China and U.S. relationship here.)

“[We do that by] working … with our partners and allies ... [and we’ll] be in a much better position to influence the direction that China takes,” Blinken continued. “Just on trade alone, acting alone, the United States is 20-25% of world GDP. When we're actually acting in concert with allies and partners, it’s 50% or 60% of world GDP, [which is] a lot harder for the government in Beijing to ignore.”

Techno-Democracies and Techno-Autocracies Can Both Affect Global Trade

Still focused on the U.S.’s complex relationship with China, Blinken commented on the rise of techno-autocracies, their effect on global trade and the best way to combat them.

“We also need to bring allies and partners in … [and work] together to set rules of the road and coordinate on technology policy, including on export controls, investment restrictions [and] technology standards,” Blinken added. “Techno-democracies have to do a much better job in working together, thinking together, acting together to try to set the standard … We need to make sure that democracies are living in a technologically democratic world.”

“That's maybe the biggest challenge that we have before us,” Blinken continued. “[It] requires a lot more work, a lot more engagement, [and] a lot more cooperation between government and the private sector. No government can or should do this alone. I hope we can get to a place where we're working together in a thoughtful manner.”