From Israel to India, America’s illiberal allies are hurting its moral standing

Over the past several months, US President Joe Biden has been concentrating his foreign policy efforts on Ukraine. However, he is now observing another conflict, this time in Gaza. This new crisis in the Middle East serves as a stark reminder of the polarised world order and the challenging moral decisions that have characterised Biden's presidency. Upon assuming office in 2021, he portrayed global politics as a battle between democracies and autocracies. His primary objective was to identify like-minded partners, deemed 'democratic' by Washington, to counteract America's significant geopolitical adversaries, namely China and Russia.

Biden also employed this democratic values rhetoric as a counterpoint to his predecessor, Donald Trump. As president, Trump largely abandoned values-based rhetoric in his foreign policy, ushering in an era of 'America first' isolationism and lauding autocratic leaders from Hungary's Viktor Orban to Russia's Vladimir Putin. Biden urged the US to reclaim its role as a moral leader, to 'prove democracy works', and to bolster democracy domestically and internationally. He believed this would set the US apart from its competitors. To this end, Biden organised two Summits for Democracy and rallied countries around democratic norms and values.

However, as has been evident for some time, particularly in the context of the Gaza war, Biden has struggled to practice what he preaches, especially when dealing with illiberal allies. Instead, his rhetoric has inadvertently weakened democratic movements against these regimes and fostered illiberalism. Biden's management of the strategic US relationships with Israel and India, two crucial partners that have been gradually drifting away from democratic values, is particularly telling.