Upon the genesis of the United Nations, Harry Truman envisioned a “durable world order” in which the UN would be the linchpin for global governance, and he vowed to position the support of this overarching institution as the “Point One of the U.S. foreign policy.” Seven decades later, however, America has grown to resent the world order it helped create. Donald Trump stomped on the multilateral frameworks for four years, and was outspoken about his contempt. And now, amid the excommunicatory condemnation of the geopolitical rivals, Joe Biden’s most recent UN address sent a subtle message: Despite the “America-is-back” rhetoric, the Trumpian disdain for international institutions has found root in the U.S. foreign policy behind the facade of resurgent internationalism.

Biden in Trump’s Shoes

Addressing the present world leaders, Biden passionately enunciated the morality of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but he did not even bother to attempt a possible peaceful solution to the life-devouring armed strife, least of all, through the UN framework. Instead, he seized the opportunity to anathematize Russia and sought to engineer an ideological crusade for what is essentially a geopolitical gambit. And UN Security Council, the most prominent multilateral organ of great power concert, is on its way to being weakened by the U.S., which called for the removal of Russia from its seat as a permanent member and the inclusion of American allies in its stead. When it comes to managing the externality of the conflict, the U.S. conveniently shunned its duty. In the height of the following global food crisis, the U.S. sat idly by as the UN and Turkey midwifed a Black Sea Deal to ensure a safe water passage. Biden simply thought it is a great accomplishment on his part to exempt Russia from food and fertilizer sanctions, among a rising number of U.S.-backed sanctions that are not endorsed by the UN.

In a way, Biden is no different from George W. Bush. They both took full advantage of a war, fueled by the U.S. and without the UN's blessing, to advance America’s ideological dominance, only at the expense of the tradition of multilateral consensus. Moscow might have been an unsatisfied power at its own doorstep, but Washington is pushing unilateral moves against the global regime.

Unlike his abrasive predecessor, Biden strove to reinstate the charade of America being a benevolent public good provider. But that reputation is beyond repair. Despite the fact that Biden had referred to “climate crisis” 11 times in his UN speech last year, His absence in the UN meeting on climate change this year turned out a living metaphor of how the high-profile issue takes a back seat. Of course, Biden did not waste the opportunity this time to flaunt his hard-won legislation triumph with an alleged US$369 billion check to brace for climate change. Nevertheless, the deal should be considered a pyrrhic victory at best, as a substantial portion of the money is set to boost the fossil fuel industry to appease conservative Democrats. Not to mention this move will only reduce America’s greenhouse emissions by 40% below 2005 levels, falling short of Biden’s above 50% commitment to the Paris Agreement, the first multilateral framework Washington re-embraced as a signature gesture upon Biden’s inauguration. The fact that the Act in question was passed with a slimmest margin indicates that the policy pendulum has swung to the extreme position on the left. It is the beginning to the end, not the end to the beginning.