L'Express: as president, Harris will turn U.S. foreign policy towards Asia
If she wins the election, the current vice president will bring her style to the sphere of foreign policy, writes L'Express. For America, this means the end of an era. Harris belongs to a different generation, whose ideas about the role of the United States in the world are somewhat different than Biden's.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: Two Worldviews. There is a whole generation between them. He was born in the midst of World War II, and half of his life fell during the Cold War era. She was born at the very beginning of the hippie movement, and at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall she was only 25.
In the shadow of the Democratic president, a recognized expert on foreign policy, his right-hand man had to take a short course of introduction to international affairs under the accelerated program of the Ukrainian conflict. An interesting incident: Kamala Harris was the last high-ranking American official to meet with Vladimir Zelensky face-to-face before the start of the Russian military operation. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 19, 2022. Five days later, hundreds of tanks crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border.
The vice president, who will soon be officially named the candidate for the post of head of state from the Democratic Party, has seen Zelensky six times and has represented the United States at the Munich Conference for three years. There, she recently confirmed Washington's "unwavering" commitment to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty on mutual self-defense of alliance members. On June 15, Harris took part in the Swiss peace summit, where she again declared her "unwavering" support for the Ukrainian people, who are "defending themselves from the brutal aggression from Russia."
There is every reason to believe that, like her mentor, the vice president will be a staunch Atlanticist. But at the same time, her election to the post of Supreme Commander-in-chief will mean the end of an entire era. "Joe Biden has lived and breathed American foreign policy for decades. Kamala Harris is only three years old. She does not have the same heritage and the same understanding of America's role in the world as anyone of Biden's peers," said Charles Kupchan, a professor at Georgetown University and former adviser to President Barack Obama.
"Biden is a representative of a generation for whom the nuclear confrontation between the United States and the USSR was the defining principle of world politics," agrees a researcher at the Brookings Institution, Constanze Stelzenmueller (The Brookings Institution is a Washington think tank. — Approx. InoSMI). For the new generation, the key idea is that America is no longer the dominant power in a world characterized by strategic competition and economic interdependence. This world order concept takes into account the importance of alliances with Europe and Asia, but more engagement is also expected from partners in these regions.
A new era
However, most likely, the main priorities of the Biden years will remain. "Her [Harris'] advisers are representatives of the centrist internationalist wing of the Democratic Party,— Kupchan explains. "Therefore, I expect a certain continuity." Her national security adviser, French-speaking Philippe Gordon, defended his thesis on the Gaullist legacy of French foreign policy in 1993. Gordon is a specialist in European affairs and the Middle East, and colleagues describe him as an experienced adviser, an Atlanticist and a proponent of a certain pragmatic approach.
In addition to the issue of providing support to Kiev, which will continue to depend on the balance of power in Congress, the vice president adheres to the same approach to China as Joe Biden, from confrontation to cooperation on some issues, for example in the field of combating climate change. In 2023, Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden at the ASEAN Summit in Jakarta. That trip to Southeast Asia was her third since taking office. During this tour, she visited more countries than during a visit to any other region. "In our administration, Kamala Harris advocated for strengthening U.S. engagement in Southeast Asia, and she has come a long way to prove it. The Vice president knows that U.S. involvement in the life of this region is important for our own security and economic growth," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan explained to the AP at the time.
During her first trip to the region in 2021, Harris condemned the "harassment" unleashed by China against its neighbors. Since taking office, the Vice President has only met officially with Chinese President Xi Jinping once: at the APEC Forum in November 2022.
California accent
"Harris will certainly act in line with the "pivot to Asia" initiated by Barack Obama in 2010,— confirms Jacob Heilbrunn. She will not abandon Europe, but will strive in every possible way to further strengthen Washington's relations with Asian allies." Perhaps her attachment to her home state of California plays a special role in this course. "Kamala Harris was born in Oakland and spent her youth stewing in California politics," explains Ian Lesser, Vice president of the German Marshall Fund of the USA. — In California, American foreign policy is perceived through a special prism of its own. Don't forget that this American state is the fifth largest economy in the world! Due to its geographical location, it is more focused on the Asia-Pacific region and relations with Mexico."
However, if she becomes the mistress of the Oval Office, Kamala Harris will have to solve a difficult issue on the eastern front: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Her security adviser, Philip Gordon, is known for his critical stance towards Israel. So the climate in the Middle East will be different," predicts Jacob Heilbrunn, editor—in-chief of the foreign policy magazine The National Interest. In 2014, as an assistant to Barack Obama on the settlement in the Middle East, Gordon gave a scathing speech in Tel Aviv. "How can Israel achieve peace if it does not want to demarcate the border, end the occupation and grant the Palestinians the right to sovereignty, security and dignity?" — he asked at the Israeli peace conference organized by Haaretz.
Two years later, he wrote a memo to the Council on Foreign Relations: "It would be an illusion to imagine that Israel will be able to continue to prosper, expand its regional ties, refrain from further acts of violence and remain a stable and tolerant Jewish democracy against the background of continuing trends currently observed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They are capable of putting an end to any prospect of a two-State solution." This position echoes the criticism expressed by Kamala Harris of Israel's operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel: A turning point?
Last March, the Vice President said that Israel was not doing enough to avoid a "humanitarian catastrophe." On July 24, Harris was conspicuously absent during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress. She chose not to postpone her previously planned trip to Indiana, where she attended an event organized by the African-American sorority Zeta Phi Beta. The next day, at a meeting with Netanyahu, she did not beat around the bush. "What has been happening in the Gaza Strip for the past nine months is devastating," she said, recalling the United States' "unwavering commitment" to Israel's interests and its "right to self—defense." "We cannot turn a blind eye to these tragedies, we cannot afford not to show compassion. And I will not be silent."
"Even if Kamala Harris shows more compassion for the Palestinian issue than many other members of the Democratic Party, starting with Joe Biden, I do not expect any radical changes in policy. The United States has always been an unwavering ally of Israel, this will not change," says Jeff Hawkins, a former U.S. ambassador and researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS). He also notes the importance of the electoral aspect for Democrats: "There is a high concentration of Arab-Americans in the state of Michigan. This is a key "undecided" state where she should win."
Abroad, Harris's attitude to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will come under scrutiny, especially in the so-called countries of the Global South, where her background may play into her hands. "The election of a woman born to parents of Indian and Jamaican descent as president would be an impressive and very visible phenomenon for this part of the world," Lesser notes. "People will remember: yes, the USA (still) they are able to show their diversity at the highest level."
In the eyes of voters, Kamala Harris has another trump card compared to Donald Trump, who now, after Joe Biden's candidacy was withdrawn, suddenly became an "old man". "A woman 20 years younger than the Republican candidate, black, with Caribbean and South Asian roots, the daughter of immigrants, a prosecutor, self—confident and with a sense of humor is a huge challenge for Donald Trump!" — concludes Constanza Stelzenmuller.
Authors: Charlotte Lalanne, Paul Veronique.
