Multilateralism By Jean Balme
Jean Balme is a MA student in Geopolitics, Territory and Security within the Department of Geography at King’s College London. His research interests are primarily focused on politics sub-Saharan Africa, world diplomacy and geopolitical dynamics. Being French, he is a member of the think tank Les Jeunes IHEDN and has interned at the French embassy in the United Kingdom.
that can be overcome, especially China which seeks to steal the global leadership. What is at stake for Biden is to stop the U.S.’s decline of power. This idea is shared by the British historian Paul Kennedy in his much-acclaimed ‘The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers’ in 1987:
Multilateralism in the 2020s: What to expect for the new U.S. president in the game of thrones
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“The task facing American statesmen over the next decades, therefore, is to recognize that broad trends are under way, and that there is a need to “manage” affairs so that the relative erosion of the United States’ position takes place slowly and smoothly, and is not accelerated by policies which bring merely short-term advantage but longer-term disadvantage.” [3]
n light of the recent events that have shaken Washington D.C. and the Capitol, we have assisted to scenes that are not worthy of the state that has dominated the world for the past 30 years. The decline of the U.S. seems inevitable and will constitute one of the major geopolitical matter of the 2020s.
With the rise of China, the risk of the EU taking its destiny into its hand or the Middle East’s deadlock, Biden’s administration will face burning challenges in 2021. The emergence of these phenomenona seem to be ineluctable in view of the past decade.
This is it. While the U.S. reviews its four years of inconsistent foreign policy [1], the newly elected President Joe Biden will have to compose with a more unstable world and define a strategy that would keep the U.S. as a hyperpower [2]. Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has imposed itself as the guarantor of international stability. It is clear that nowadays, this idea of liberal international order is running out of breath. Yet, the U.S. maintained hegemony, despite being constantly challenged. The past four years have changed the game. Undeniably, Trump’s biggest impact on international politics is the hastening withdrawal of the United States of America as the guardian of stability, even if the premises of this shift have been observed under Obama. Biden’s administration cannot reverse the flow of things. There is no denying that the U.S. is considered by its pairs as another actor
Firstly, the main concern for both the U.S. and the rest of the world is China. Undeniably, China’s economic power challenges the U.S. but recent years have proven that the PRC is becoming more and more involved in the political arena. Regarding Trump’s presidency, his personal style of communication did not play in the U.S.’s favour when it comes to the China-U.S. opposition. It is true that with Biden as president, there will not be any aggressive tweet or extravagant declaration. However, in substance, President Trump has shattered
12 | KCL Geopolitical Risk Forecast Report 2021
