President Biden has made it his mission to wage what he calls “the war between democracy and tyranny.” But what if you are friends with those you believe are undermining democracy?
In the case of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday pushed through parliament to impose new restrictions on an independent judiciary that Mr. Biden has chosen to address. He declared the vote in Jerusalem “unfortunate”, the fourth time in a week that he chastised Mr Netanyahu for increasing his own power.
But the president’s battle for democracy may be circumstantial when it comes to America’s allies. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has presided over a wave of Hindu nationalist violence and repression of dissent, was honored with a state dinner at the White House and little public criticism. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was rewarded with a visit and a presidential fist despite his murderous rule.
“Stability has been a challenge for most administrations when it comes to concerns for democracy and human rights around the world, and this administration is no exception,” said David J. “It’s easy to talk when our enemies and competitors engage in arbitrary abuses,” he said. “It’s hard when it comes to friends and allies.”
His predecessor Donald J. A democracy-versus-authoritarian framework has been central from the start to Mr. Biden’s vision of his presidency, fueled by his fight against Trump. Mr.
After all, it is a politically appealing construct – right and wrong, good guys and bad guys. But it’s predictably more complicated in the briefing room than it looks on stage during a grand speech. Given other American interests, such as military bases or intelligence cooperation or economic entanglements, deciding when to speak out strongly for democracy can prove tricky.
Mr. While some senior officials around Biden are privately uncomfortable with the dichotomy of his black-and-white approach, some of America’s friends are not particularly independent but have the rule of law (Singapore springs to mind) while others are even less committed to Western notions of human rights but are still helpful allies (the United Arab Emirates, for example).
No doubt Mr. Biden finds it necessary to exercise restraint with authoritarian countries. Although he recently called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” at a political fundraiser, he has said little specifically about Beijing’s brutal crackdown on the Uyghur minority or its crackdown on freedom in Hong Kong.
It gets even tougher when it comes to America’s allies. Thomas Carothers and Benjamin Press of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last year identified 27 countries that have retreated from democracy since 2005, including friends such as Egypt, Georgia, Hungary, India, the Philippines, Poland, Tanzania, Thailand and Turkey.
In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has pushed through legislation to curb the power and autonomy of the national electoral body, in what critics call an attempt to restore one-party rule. Mr López Obrador said he was trying to make elections more efficient but Mexico’s Supreme Court last month struck down a key part of his plan.
Mr. Biden has not been particularly vocal about democracy in any of the countries. In fact, he has welcomed the president of the Philippines to the White House and visited Poland twice and Mexico once while signaling support for the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. The reasons are not mysterious – the Philippines to contain China, Poland to stand up to Russia, Mexico to curb illegal immigration and Turkey to allow Sweden to join NATO.
Of course, pressing other countries on democratic regression is more complicated because another laggard on Carnegie’s list is the United States. Mr.
Michael J., president of Freedom House, a non-governmental organization that promotes democracy. Abramowitz said Mr. Biden should “get some credit for being willing to exercise US leadership” on the issue but “must back up his rhetoric with concrete actions” and financing.
“They should be more consistent in their standards with other nations, especially US allies,” Mr. Abramowitz added. “Close friends should be able to speak the truth to each other, but President Biden basically gave Prime Minister Modi a pass on the backsliding of Indian democracy, at least publicly, rightly calling out Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
Other presidents were Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. From Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan have wrestled with the conflict between the ideals they espoused and the realities they faced. In his second inaugural address, Mr. Bush committed to the “ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world” and vowed to build relationships with “every ruler and every nation” on freedom.
Mr. Biden has sponsored two “democracy summits” and announced a third to be held in South Korea. In his State of the Union address this year, after he took office, he declared that “democracies are strong, not weak” but “dictatorships are weak, not strong.”
Still, after two and a half years in office, Mr. Biden does not have a Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for democracy. His first choice, Sarah Morgan, withdrew after Republican opposition stemmed from earlier tweets on Israel.
While keeping a low profile on issues in places like India, Mr. Mr. Biden’s willingness to slam Netanyahu’s justice plan underscores the role Israel plays in American politics. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has long been a lightning rod for criticism, and support for the country in Washington has been a partisan issue.
With a long record of support for Israel, Mr. Biden maintains that he is in a position to offer friendly advice. Just last week, Mr. Netanyahu telephoned them and made three public statements urging him to build a broad consensus before moving forward. “It is unfortunate that today’s vote took place by a very narrow majority,” the White House said in a statement on Monday.
Mr. With Netanyahu in defiance, the question is whether Mr. Biden will go beyond the jaw. The United States gives Israel billions of dollars a year in security aid, but Mr. Mr. Biden Netanyahu is unlikely to use leverage beyond appeals to force him to back down.
“So far, Biden’s push has been merely rhetorical, and not enough to challenge Netanyahu’s expanding authoritarianism, indicating how out of sync Biden is with his own voting base,” said Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Those close to the president said his words were important. “I wouldn’t say it’s just rhetoric,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “When the president speaks, it sends a message.”
Mr. For Netanyahu’s supporters, the president’s outrage over the erosion of democracy in Israel is choice. For one thing, he argues, the prime minister’s plan to limit the powers of the courts is not anti-democratic but places more responsibility in the hands of elected leaders.
Furthermore, Mr. Biden has often advanced the law on “possible majorities.” In fact, Vice President Kamala Harris holds the record for the most tiebreaking votes in the Senate in American history.
“There’s no question that Israel is being treated differently,” said John Hanna, a senior fellow at the American Jewish Institute for National Security, a nonpartisan organization in Washington focused on advancing the U.S.-Israel strategic partnership.
In France, Mr. Biden accused Mr. Biden of roughing up parliament to enact unpopular pension changes without broad consensus. “Yet you search in vain for a single word from President Biden of genuine criticism against the French counterpart’s handling of these purely internal French matters,” Mr Hanna said.
Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Center for a New American Security, said America’s approach to promoting democracy abroad “has always been a model of inconsistency.” Mr. Biden said the world is currently facing a race of democracy versus autocracy, and the United States must stand for the former, but he must balance that against other objectives.
“Inconsistency and whataboutism are inevitable byproducts of a foreign policy that seeks changes in the domestic conditions of other countries,” he said. “This is not a reason to abandon the effort to support democracy abroad – to understand that it is not an easy task.”
