Vice President Harris has served as President Biden’s key surrogate on the global stage, but her new bid for the Oval Office will bring into focus the areas of foreign policy where she will seek to advance her vision – or break with it.
So far, Harris has received key endorsements from progressive lawmakers who have openly criticized the way Biden’s support for Israel has impacted the Palestinians, the most divisive foreign policy issue among Democrats right now.
And Republicans will certainly associate Harris with her fierce criticism around immigration and policies around the US southern border. At the beginning of Biden’s term, he appointed the vice president to lead the administration’s fight against the root causes of migration in Central America.
Although Harris has rarely gained prominence representing Biden’s foreign policy priorities, she has been a diligent representative abroad: traveling to Europe to show support for Ukraine and commitment to NATO; sent to the Middle East to become involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and confronting US partners and allies in Asia and the Indo-Pacific as a way to counter China.
Harris avoided some but not all of Biden’s baggage with Palestinian supporters
Advocates of a tougher US policy toward Israel point to Harris’ position March speech in Selma, Alabama.as a promising example of the vice president addressing the plight of the Palestinians at a time when Biden was under increasing pressure to curb arms deliveries to Israel due to the death toll and destruction in the Gaza Strip amid its war against Hamas.
“The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid [to Palestinians]. No excuses,” Harris said to applause.
“She really raised the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in a much more aggressive way, much more critical of the Israeli government’s approach in that country. I think that was noticed by everyone,” said Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
But it’s unclear whether Harris’ speech represented a major policy difference or just a change in rhetoric. As she advances as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she now has the opportunity to articulate what she intends to do differently, Duss said.
He added that it is an important sign that she will not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Wednesday. Several Democratic lawmakers have announced they will boycott the speech, most of them progressive.
“I hope and expect that she and her team will engage with the full range of voices that make up the Democratic Party, and that includes its growing progressive movement [wing].”
Harris is a known quantity for Europe, NATO
Harris’s appearances on the global stage have rarely made headlines, but as vice president, she has been a steadfast attendee at major gatherings and meetings with the US’s European and NATO allies, her presence sending a message of US support for the transatlantic alliance. , as well as Ukraine. .
Biden dispatched Harris to Europe in February 2022 in a public warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin against launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference. She also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at that time, and a meeting that most leaders hoped would be the last timethey would see the Ukrainian leader alive.
In March, Harris spoke again at the Munich Security Conference, where she reaffirmed the US’s “firm” commitment to NATO.
Former President Trump threatened to withdraw from the alliance and raised the possibility of delaying commitments to the treaty’s mutual defense pillar.
“She understands that a strong, secure, innovative and prosperous Europe benefits the United States and vice versa – and that in a challenging world, America is stronger with allies,” said Dan Baer, former US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation. in Europe and member of the advisory board of Foreign Policy for America.
In June, Biden sent Harris as the highest-ranking official to represent the US in Switzerland at a peace summit hosted by Zelensky, working to rally global support to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
“America supports Ukraine not out of charity, but because it is in our strategic interests,” Harris said.
Immigration and southern border
One of Harris’ biggest vulnerabilities during her vice presidency was her role on immigration policy.
Appointed to craft the Biden administration’s policy on the root causes of regional migration, Harris was quickly dubbed the “border czar” by Republicans, even though the border was outside her portfolio.
Persecuted by the right, Harris also managed to anger the left in 2021, when she made her first trip abroad as vice president, to Mexico and Guatemala, and delivered a now infamous message to potential migrants: “Don’t come.”
If she wins the presidency, Harris will deal with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo, who has resisted attempts to derail his ascension with the support of the Biden administration.
But all eyes will be on the potential relationship between Harris and the president-elect of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman to win the Mexican presidency, a role she will assume on October 1.
Pairing American women leaders would certainly attract global attention and could help both new leaders solidify their internal positions.
Sheinbaum has already indirectly clashed with Trump, who at a rally in Michigan on Saturday erroneously claimed that current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – “a great guy” – is no longer president and mocked Marcelo Ebrard, a former minister of Foreign Affairs who is slated to be Sheinbaum’s trade czar.
Sheinbaum, whocalled Trump’s comments profanewould likely have much smoother interactions with President Harris.
Such a relationship with the left-leaning Sheinbaum could make life easier for Harris in dealing with the region’s left-leaning governments, from neutral powers like Brazil to U.S. rivals including Cuba and Venezuela.
The region’s right-wing leaders, such as Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Javier Milei of Argentina, are unlikely to establish a close relationship with Harris, but their countries have had less of an impact on U.S. interests in the region since the trade and investment to migration.
Harris is a stable force in US policy in Asia
Another area where Harris has sought to make inroads is in Asia, promoting Biden’s strategy to deepen bilateral and multilateral relations in the region as a way to counter China’s overwhelming influence.
Both Democrats and Republicans have identified China as the most challenging threat to U.S. global superiority and a threat to what they describe as the rules-based international order.
The Biden administration’s strategy has been to engage with China to avoid conflicts, but to build deeper relationships between Asian countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally, presenting the US as a better and more reliable partner than Beijing.
Harris was Biden’s delegate to ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, in September, marking his third visit to the region during his term, and his fourth to the Indo-Pacific.
Gregory Poling, who directs the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Associated Press at the time, Harris was “an effective avatar for the administration” but still had some experience to gain.
“She didn’t kill it,” he said. “It is clear that she was new to the subject. But she tried.”
The Senate experience can be positive
Foreign policy is often considered the rare area in which Democrats and Republicans put partisanship aside to project unity on the global stage, a tradition that was severely undermined under Trump, whose most loyal supporters in Congress continued to frustrate Democrats’ efforts to cooperation with Republicans during Biden’s term.
Harris spent four years in the Senate, representing California, before becoming vice president, serving on the Intelligence and Homeland Security committees.
And she could appeal to centrist, foreign policy and national security lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“I think this is a time when our allies and partners around the world, many of whom have been represented here in recent days, and anxious Americans, need to be reassured that there are strong bipartisan relationships in the Senate,” he said. the senator. “Chris Coons (D-Del.), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and top Biden ally, said during the Aspen Security Forum last week.
“It is important for people to realize that the Senate is a center of stability, especially in matters of National Security and foreign policy.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
