Foreign affairs is all about second chances. History is full of examples where national interests demand amnesia and grudges serve no foreign-policy purpose. That should reassure skeptics who fear that the four years under President Donald Trump have permanently diminished U.S. global influence. Indeed, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from global leadership only demonstrated the importance of the United States, not its irrelevance.
For the United States, the ability to start with a clean slate is most evident in Latin America. In a new poll, 66 percent of Mexicans said they approve of U.S. President Joe Biden, as did 60 percent of Brazilians. Since his election, many Latin American leaders have deluged Biden with congratulatory calls and tweets. Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado welcomed the United States “back to multilateralism.” “Democracy triumphs,” Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno proclaimed before racing to Washington to meet with Biden’s senior adviser on Latin America. Moreno also advocated for a closer partnership in the Miami Herald in January, writing that “regional integration should be at the top of President Biden’s priority list.” Chile’s environment minister held a videoconference with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and cheered Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris agreement. In Argentina, the Foreign Ministry published a summary of President Alberto Fernández’s call with Biden, in which Fernández said that Biden’s election represented “a great opportunity to create a better link for the United States to reconnect with Latin America.”
