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Welcome to Talking Feds, a round table that brings together prominent figures from Government

Law and Journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day.

I'm Harry Lentman. President Biden left for Rome in the G20 summit this week keenly wanting

the tailwind of an enacted spending bill that would demonstrate to world leaders that the U.S.

is solving problems that be set many of them, climate change in particular. Instead,

he went empty handed and needing to confront a series of vexing foreign policy challenges.

Combined with his paramount objective of sealing the deal on the domestic spending bills at home,

give Biden the look of a juggler riding a unicycle in front of a world audience.

The challenges begin as is now a constant on the international stage with China.

Tensions with Beijing have risen markedly over the perennial issue of Taiwan,

and China recently tested hypersonic missiles in what the chair of the U.S. Chiefs of Staff

characterized as very close to a sputnik moment. Then of course, there's Russia that has nowhere near

China's economic might but makes up for it with a bottomless appetite for destabilizing mischief,

particularly directed west toward Europe and the U.S.

And Biden has a lot of work with our erstwhile best friends in Europe because the United States

ambition to return to center stage as the emblem of capitalist democracy turns in large part on the

attitudes of our NATO allies who perceived Trump's tenure as a kick in the teeth. Finally,

with the release of the newest report from the UN and the imminent climate change conference,

Biden and the U.S. also have to engage with the lackluster progress of the G20 nations who are

not coming close to the pledges they all made in 2015. Here again, Biden sorely needs the whole

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