Immediately after the inauguration of Joe Biden, we noted that a new United States of America is now being born
In our analysis of the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency, we concluded that American elites are deliberately dismantling the ideology of the founding fathers and the process is going beyond the United States itself.
This conclusion was confirmed just days after the State Department leaked a letter sent to all US diplomatic and consular offices. Politico obtained a letter from the State Department to diplomatic missions detailing new priorities in human rights and democracy promotion.
First of all, it should be noted that the strategy to delegitimize the traditional American ideology of the founding fathers on US exceptionalism began to be implemented under Barack Obama’s administration. It was under him that the issue of equality on the basis of race was raised to new heights. Speaking before the Turkish Parliament on 6 April 2009, Barack Obama said: “The United States is still going through some of our own darkest periods in our history. Opposite the Washington Monument I mentioned is a monument to Abraham Lincoln, a man who liberated those who were enslaved even after Washington led our revolution. Our country is still struggling with the legacy of slavery and segregation and the past treatment of Native Americans.”
Now President Joe Biden, by calling the US tainted because of racism, is only continuing a strategy to dismantle traditional ideology and replace it with an ideology where differences – racial, gender – are the basis, within this even illness becomes a positive feature.
We have previously noted that in its foreign policy, the US is substituting the traditional issue of human rights (championed by the UN) to life, equality before the law and freedom of speech, with the issue of racial inequality and support for disadvantaged communities, including LGBT. This trend is becoming a defining policy of the US State Department.
On 13 July, the State Department issued a press statement, ‘US Leadership on Human Rights and Ending Systemic Racism’. This statement stated that in June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report on racism and police brutality against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies around the world, including the US.
It is further stated that the US, as a great nation, will not hide from its shortcomings and therefore intends to issue a formal standing invitation to all UN experts who prepare reports and advise on thematic human rights issues. Finally, the State Department chief urges all UN member states to join the US initiative to examine the state of human rights and to confront the scourge of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia.
The State Department’s letter, available to Politico, states that “Advocating for democracy and human rights around the world is not against America’s national interest or our national security. It is squarely in America’s national interest and strengthens our national security when democracy and human rights are defended and strengthened around the world.”
State Department chief Anthony Blinken identifies several priorities for US diplomacy
– Strengthening democratic reform movements in strategically important countries and partner nations;
– providing citizens with the means to combat surveillance practices and facilitate their access to information;
– combating corruption, and preventing abuses by security forces abroad, including those the US is helping to arm.
In his letter, Blinken instructs US diplomats to engage regularly with human rights defenders and civil society representatives in the countries where they work, especially those “where democracy and human rights are under threat”.
In promoting human rights and democracy abroad, US diplomats should “make it clear that we ask no more of other countries than we ask of ourselves”, – Blinken writes. – “That means we acknowledge our imperfections. We don’t sweep it under the rug. We confront it openly and transparently.”
According to Blinken, such honesty “helps disarm critics and naysayers who use our imperfect record at home to undermine our global leadership on these issues.”
Blinken advises US diplomats to monitor and report not only on the domestic situation in their host countries, but also on how that country acts on human rights and democracy even beyond its borders and in international institutions. He also urges State Department officials to explore all avenues, from restrictions on US military aid to visa bans, to influence the behaviour of violators.
In the letter sent out, Blinken acknowledges that it will be necessary to reconsider how the US “myriad national interests” balance with reality, and that some of America’s close international partners are human rights abusers, not to mention some dictatorships.
Even in maintaining relations with such governments, “we must always make our concerns clear and seek ways to put effective pressure on these countries to uphold democratic norms and respect human rights”, – Blinken writes. – “While in some cases we will have to adjust the pressure we apply to avoid breaking the relationship, there is no relationship or situation in which we will stop raising human rights concerns.”
Politico points out that senior State Department officials acknowledge in comments that each situation must be looked at individually to determine what tactics will work best. However, there should be no case where the US has determined that it cannot raise concerns with a foreign government about these issues.
The publication notes that in early 2021, Joe Biden’s administration, unlike Donald Trump’s, punished Saudi Arabia for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by imposing visa bans and other sanctions on dozens of Saudi officials. A pile of similar issues lies ahead.
It needs to be decided whether to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the government of Egypt, which has tens of thousands of political prisoners. It must also be decided whether the mass killings and expulsion of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar constitute genocide. Given the administration’s interests in Asia, whether India should be called a “country of particular concern” for restricting religious freedom.
Based on the above, we can say that despite all the pathetic statements, the US is not going to shut itself down in its search for the causes of systemic racism and xenophobia in its own country, and under this pretext is going to review relations with some old partners. This makes sense – the geopolitical situation has changed greatly and the US is unable to provide the former support to loyal regimes. However, the desire to pressure countries to change their policies to please the US remains.
Oleg Ladogin, Russtrat.