Barely three weeks into office, and still badly understaffed, the Biden administration is already facing several big, awkward foreign-policy challenges. The coup in Myanmar, Moscow’s crackdown on widespread protests, and the political turmoil in Haiti (where President Jovenel Moïse has refused to step down at the end of his term) all seem to require a strong response from Washington—especially given the administration’s much-touted promises to put democracy and human rights at the core of its agenda.
So far, the White House has moved cautiously. It has yet to take, or even promise, any action on Russia or Haiti, beyond making righteous statements about the former and confusing ones about the latter. On Myanmar, meanwhile, after 11 days of deliberation it announced new sanctions on Wednesday that would target the country’s military and freeze $1 billion in Burmese government assets held in the United States.
