On Feb. 4, President Joe Biden traveled to the State Department and in a 20-minute address lifted the pall that had descended over the U.S. foreign-policy community during the Trump era. Biden said everything that diplomats, regional experts, and policy mandarins had been craving for the past four years: The United States will repair its relations with its allies, pursue a foreign policy infused with American values, invest in the State Department, and listen to its experts. The hosannas rained down on Twitter. If there were no pandemic, I am certain that foreign service officers and think tankers would have poured into the streets singing, “Let the sunshine… Let the sunshine in… The sunshine in…”
It was, as almost everyone declared, a return to “normal.” A president’s speech without an airing of grievances, a review of how wonderful the incumbent is, and a litany of lies is refreshing and normal. Yet by “normal,” commentators were also suggesting that Biden outlined a foreign policy that hews to norms, ideas, and practices that were traditionally important—at least rhetorically—to America’s conduct in the world. After four exhausting and disorienting years, Biden declared in his best Joe-from-Scranton voice that “America is back!”
