Why Joe Biden’s foreign policy experience is both a weakness and a strength in 2020

Depending on whom you ask, Joe Biden’s entry into the 2020 presidential race either means the Democratic field now has its most experienced and celebrated foreign policy candidate — or a frontrunner who hasn’t made a good foreign policy decision in decades.

Such is the former vice president’s long and complicated global affairs record. But Biden must now defend that record against his critics on both the left and the right.

In general, the former vice president and longtime senator adheres to the traditional center-left worldview espoused by most establishment Democrats, which emphasizes America’s role as a champion of democracy and human rights around the world, places high value on maintaining alliances, and sees American military power on balance as a force for good in the world.

In government, in speeches, and in writings, Biden has made his positions very clear. He’s a strong advocate of NATO and of having close relationships with America’s traditional European allies. He wants to firmly push back against Russia’s aggression. He’d like to work with Latin American countries to stamp out corruption, curb violence, and democratize the region.

He would make boosting America’s economy central to US strength, while still remaining somewhat skeptical of free trade. He’s cautious about what the US military can achieve on its own in the Middle East and elsewhere. And he says the US should focus much of its attention on Asia, mainly because of a growing China.

If all of that sounds pretty conventional, it’s because it is.

“Biden explicitly offers continuity with mainstream, centrist US foreign policy thinking from the era before Trump,” Paul Musgrave, a US foreign policy expert at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told me. “It’s not a vision that offers a radical or exciting critique. It’s one that sees the core tenets of establishment foreign policy thinking as responsible and necessary.”

But the world looks a hell of a lot different now than it did in the era before Trump. Which means Biden will have to convince voters that the old way — his way — is the best way.

The major problems with Biden’s foreign policy record

Several foreign policy experts and former US government officials I spoke with said that the US returning to its modern foreign policy roots is exactly what is needed right now and that Biden is as good a steward as anyone to do that.

They point to some of his recent statements on foreign policy hotspots to signal that his instincts are right on. For instance, Biden has blasted Trump’s “need to coddle autocrats and dictators from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong Un.”

He’s also criticized the president’s decision to stand by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the aftermath of the gruesome murder of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi — which the CIA has concluded was personally ordered by the crown prince himself.

But other experts I spoke to noted that Biden has committed serious errors on the world stage — mistakes that could mar his standing as the leading foreign policy candidate.

Here are just a few examples they point to:

• In 1991, he voted against the Gulf War, which quickly and successfully pushed out Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
• In 2003, he voted in favor of the invasion of Iraq that’s led to over a decade of war, thousands dead, and billions spent.
• In 2009, he tried to sell Obama on a strategy for Afghanistan that featured US troops training Afghan fighters and prioritized counterterrorism over statebuilding. It’s the same policy Trump unsuccessfully uses today as the Taliban gains more control of the country.
• In 2011, he advised Obama not to send a military team to kill Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who organized the September 11 terrorist attacks. The mission, with a few hiccups, was successful — and was arguably one of the biggest foreign policy “wins,” at least symbolically, of Obama’s presidency.

These and other perceived blunders led Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary under both George W. Bush and Obama, to issue a scathing critique of Biden’s acumen, saying he’s been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

But there’s another, potentially even bigger challenge Biden faces: making his old-school, centrist foreign policy views appeal to the far more progressive left flank of the Democratic Party who want to move away from America’s past practices — namely, extricating the US from foreign wars.

Biden was vice president when the US intervened in the Yemen civil war, sent more troops into Afghanistan, and escalated the use of drones to kill suspected terrorists around the world (including the highly controversial decision to kill a US citizen in a drone strike).

That has led some progressives to label Biden as a hawk, and leaves him open to attacks from more left-leaning Democratic candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) who have stronger anti-war views.

If there’s one place where Biden might be a bit closer in line with the progressive wing, though, it’s on Israel. Biden, like Obama, had a fraught relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he will likely be critical of Netanyahu for his aggressive policies toward Palestinians and for allying with far-right parties in his country.

Still, Biden has consistently expressed support for the US-Israel alliance, which may not put him as far left as some in the progressive camp, many of whom want to see the party take a tougher stance on Israel, would like — especially in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to give historically unprecedented, and seemingly unlimited, support to the right-wing Israeli government.

“Biden seems so much rooted in that pre-Trump past that he almost seems like a man out of time,” Musgrave told me. “His positions are so familiar as to seem more like a retelling of the conventional wisdom than a foreign policy platform.”

But some experts say that could actually be a good thing.

Why Biden has a foreign policy advantage

Biden can make two solid arguments as to why he’s the leading foreign policy candidate, experts say.

First, he has experience. Biden chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee multiple times and served on the panel for decades. And, of course, he served as vice president under Obama. In fact, Biden’s foreign policy experience was one of the main reasons Obama asked him to serve as his No. 2. Biden, then, can pretty convincingly make the case that he was in the White House during life-or-death foreign policy decisions and oversaw these issues on Capitol Hill.

Second, as the current frontrunner in the already crowded Democratic field, he will be able to attract the top advisers to his campaign who will help him craft an even sharper, more targeted foreign policy message as the primaries go on.

“Biden’s going to have a lock on a lot of the top talent in foreign policy, which will help his positions be more filled-in and more elaborated than most of his rivals,” Musgrave told me.

The question now is whether Biden can convince voters he’s really the kind of grand statesman the country needs for these times. That’s no easy task, even for the frontrunner.