Soon after taking office, President Joe Biden went to State Department headquarters to tell the rest of the world that the United States could be counted on again after four years of Donald Trump's bull-in-the-china-shop foreign policy. “America is back,” Biden said, in what has become a mantra.
But keeping his promises on the international stage has proved much more difficult than Biden might have expected. Domestic politics have routinely been a roadblock when it comes to taking action on climate change, taxes and pandemic relief, undermining hopes that Biden could swiftly restore the U.S. To its unquestioned role as a global leader.
The result is an administration straining to maintain its credibility abroad while Biden fights a rearguard action on Capitol Hill. It's simply more difficult to press other countries to do more to address challenges that span borders when he's struggling to deliver on those same issues at home.
“Every new thing takes a little bit of the luster off, and contributes to a sense of a struggling president," said Michael O'Hanlon, the Brookings Institution director of research for foreign policy.
Biden has earned respect for marshaling an international response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the US has shipped more coronavirus vaccines around the world than any other country.