Washington, D.C. – Foreign Policy for America (FP4A) reflects on our country’s transition as Donald Trump assumes the presidency, marking the start of a new administration and underscoring the importance of a peaceful transfer of power. This moment demands a recommitment to the values that have guided our nation’s role as a leader on the global stage.
President Joe Biden’s legacy highlights how principled leadership can meet global challenges and restore trust in American leadership. Over the past four years, the Biden administration delivered some major achievements: leading the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, rallying the world’s democracies to support Ukraine in the face of Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked aggression, expanding and strengthening the NATO alliance, forging deeper partnerships in the Indo-Pacific and Latin America, and making investments here at home in innovation and manufacturing that will secure America’s place as the global center of the 21st century economy. His leadership on climate change, from reaffirming our national commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement to taking bold action to accelerate clean energy development and deployment, is creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in communities across the country and lowering energy costs for American consumers. We are deeply grateful for President Biden’s leadership.
“President Biden reminded the world of the strength and value of American diplomacy,” said Kristina Biyad, Acting Executive Director of Foreign Policy for America. “From delivering aid to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia to taking bold steps on climate and innovation, his administration laid the groundwork for a more just and cooperative international order.”
Looking forward, FP4A recognizes the precariousness of this moment and the challenges that lie ahead. The stakes are high: we face the threat of retreating from hard-won progress on shared challenges, from climate change to global health. An inward-looking and cynical “America First” foreign policy risks weakening our alliances, ceding global leadership to our adversaries, and leaving us less capable of confronting growing transnational threats.
Yet these are not preordained outcomes. The American people have the final say on whether these policies were the ones President Trump was elected pursue.
As this new chapter begins, FP4A is committed to working with policymakers, civil society, and our fellow citizens to continue advancing a foreign policy that delivers for the American people and is rooted in our highest values: integrity, cooperation, and a vision for a more just and secure world.
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