When U.S. President Donald Trump took the United States out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2017, it seemed part and parcel of his determination that the United States would do better on its own. It has not. Meanwhile, China has filled the gap left by the U.S. absence in UNESCO, which is the leading U.N. agency for international goals on education. Understanding all this, the new Biden administration should work quickly to rejoin.
However, in return for U.S. participation, President Joe Biden’s team should push for a focused relationship with UNESCO, building on its comparative advantages in the development space. This will require a relationship centered on education, including digital education and information literacy, to push back against autocratic trends in the developing world. In that way, U.S. membership in UNESCO will both revitalize the organization and offer the United States an opportunity to advance Western values of free, open, and pluralistic education systems.
