What will Biden change with Yellen, Blinken, Mayorkas, Sullivan and Haines. Pelanda’s comment
Biden's first appointments commented by Carlo Pelanda, analyst and essayist, professor of economics and economic geopolitics
US President Joe Biden has announced the first appointments of his government team. These are appointments related to foreign policy, national security and fiscal policy: Janet Yellen , for the head of the Treasury, Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, Alejandro Mayorkas Secretary for National Security, Jake Sullivan Advisor on National Security and Avril Haines a head of intelligence. On the same day, former President Donald Trump , after having opposed the electoral results for weeks, actually recognized Biden as the winner of the elections, bringing down the temperature of the institutional clash.
Start Magazine spoke with the international relations expert Carlo Pelanda , analyst, essayist and professor of economics and economic geopolitics at Marconi University, about government appointments and the balance of power currently in place in the US.
Professor Pelanda, how do you judge Yellen's appointment as head of the Treasury?
Janet Yellen is a very positive appointment not only for the US but also for the entire global market. The former chairman of the Federal Reserve showed a strong expansionary approach and an ability to keep the value of the dollar stable enough to make it a global reference currency. Biden brought out the best of what he had on a technical level by combining it with the need to get the go-ahead from the Senate. Market analysts are trying to understand if the dollar will be subject to volatility due to domestic stimulus policy. But Janet Yellen, from her experience in the Fed, can convince the market and also the policy that it will be possible to find a good compromise between the requirements of internal stimulation, of an inflationary type, with the maintenance of monetary stability.
Biden named Blinken Secretary of State, his friend for more than 20 years and Deputy Secretary of State under Obama. What do you think?
This was an expected choice. Antony Blinken has been his advisor in the past and formulated the so-called doctrine of US re-engagement in global affairs. The Biden administration has stressed that this global presence will not be an imperial return to the US on the planet. During the election campaign, Biden's staff explained that re-engagement will be pursued through the putting in order of the global system and the development of multilateralism.
Is Blinken a good choice for Europe?
The figure of Blinken greatly reassures Germany, the geopolitical leader of the European Union, so much so that it has already asked to speed up the signing of the trade treaty between the EU and the US. Even Manfred Weber, EPP group leader in the European Parliament, has already proposed the format of the treaty between the US and the EU very similar to the customs treaty between the EU and Canada which provides for the abolition of 99% of customs. Germany, frightened by China's dominance in the Pacific, has chosen to keep strong what in German is called "Westen verbindung", the connection with the West, with the USA.
Mayorkas, a former California attorney and a man in Obama's entourage, has been named Secretary of National Security. Will there be any news?
We shouldn't expect a major break with the Trump administration. There is, in the US, a force that I call "imperial bureaucracy", within the US bureaucracy, which aims at equilibrium. The imperial bureaucracy is not an occult or coupist organism, it follows very precise guidelines which are also made explicit in Congress. In 2017, when China was defined as an "enemy" some guidelines were made explicit.
What are the upcoming foreign policy challenges for the US?
In foreign policy, the next test for the US administration is the confrontation with China in terms of control of extraterrestrial space. I'm talking about the lunar mission, the construction of spaceships in orbit and the garrison over the entire solar system. The perspective is ten years but it starts with these steps. This is the real confrontation with China rather than the geopolitical containment on earth. Who dominates the orbit dominates the world. The imperial bureaucracy knows it will have to have a non-war confrontation with China. There is the awareness of better manning both the cyber spaces of war robotics and the presence on extraterrestrial space for the battle on orbit. The balance of power will take place with mutual deterrence, mutual dissuasion.
Does continuity also apply to Homeland Security Advisor Sullivan?
Biden needs to strike a balance. Obama's influence is still very strong and was a key element in paving the way for Biden who needs to include experienced people. These appointments are stabilizing within the Democratic Party but there may be surprises in the near future, in the sense that agreements with the Republican Party would not surprise me. The National Security Advisor's assessment is not about the individual. As for the secretary, the representatives of the imperial bureaucracy within the national security council are more important and therefore: the armed forces, intelligence and all the bureaucracy. These are people who want to keep the empire.
What do you think of the appointment of Avril Haines as head of national intelligence?
Avril Haines is a trusted person for Biden. When an administration changes it is difficult to appoint a breakout person because then the imperial bureaucracy can sabotage it. The appointment was agreed between Biden and more than twenty agencies. We must realize that the right / left, Democrat / Republican border is very blurred there. There is a bipartisan level of the imperial bureaucracy in the US that acts with conditioning capacities when Republicans or Democrats overflow. The line is that of national security which is very structured. Obviously, having chosen Avril Haines as the intelligence summit has favored a consortium of people, but it is difficult to distinguish the Republicans from the Democrats, they are typical bureaucratic processes where there is a very strong system of control of the Senate and Congress. Here, too, I don't see any surprises or tears.
What are the differences with the past administration of Barack Obama?
The Obama administration was very inconsistent. He applied the doctrine of national interest developed by Condoleezza Rice in 2000 for George W. Bush's election campaign against Clinton's globalism. The doctrine of national interest basically said that the US is too small to support global demand and be the pillar of world security and must therefore have a selective approach. Obama translated into "Lead from behind", which for the other states meant a greater engagement in terms of military spending and military presence. Here this does not change, the re-engagement is intended as a greater political presence of the US in the good sense of the word it is not an imperial re-engagement as it was, out of necessity, after September 2001 when the US occupied 65 countries in the fight against terrorism. I do not expect major discontinuities and I do not expect major changes from foreign policy. Biden's biggest problem is being able to contain the radical left, influential in the Democratic Party, which does not have the desire to deal with world balance problems in its ropes. In the beginning it seems that he succeeds, and here is the main role of Obama but it is not certain in fact there is a plan B, represented by a majority in the congress made up of centrist democrats and centrist republicans.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-cambiera-biden-con-yellen-blinken-mayorkas-sullivan-e-haines-il-commento-di-pelanda/ on Tue, 24 Nov 2020 15:18:55 +0000.