What next for President Biden’s foreign policy?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
‘The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,’ said President Joe Biden six weeks ago. This prediction has not aged well.
One harrowing scene this week saw some Afghans trying to escape their new reality by clinging to the wheels of a US Air Force plane as it took off from Kabul airport. Some of them fell to their deaths.
Amidst growing international condemnation of the United States, President Biden has remained unrepentant about the end of the US mission in Afghanistan, arguing it was never about nation building or creating a unified democracy. It was about preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland.
But what impact will events in Afghanistan this week have on the President's future foreign policy decisions?
Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are:
Alex Ward, National Security reporter at Politico
Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of the US & Americas programme at Chatham House
Madiha Afzal, Brookings Institution
Prof Michael Clarke, former Director General of RUSI and Professor of Defence Studies at King's College London
Producers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Sharon Hemans Editor: Penny Murphy Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. You, me, top experts, 28 minutes and a big issue of the day. |
| 0:07.0 | Let's go. And this week, as the Taliban take control of Afghanistan, we look at where the American withdrawal that precipitated the collapse fitted into Joe Biden's foreign policy. |
| 0:21.8 | The President of the United States did not foresee the sudden collapse of the Afghan government |
| 0:26.6 | last week, but he was clear that if it were a consequence of American withdrawal, |
| 0:31.4 | then so be it. |
| 0:32.9 | That this represented a break with American foreign policy pre-Donald Trump is obvious. |
| 0:38.7 | So this week, I want to know just how the withdrawal fits into Joe Biden's wider strategy |
| 0:44.4 | for American involvement in the world. |
| 0:47.2 | What is the Biden plan? |
| 0:49.6 | And how has the Afghan debacle affected it? |
| 0:53.2 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 0:58.3 | Before we look at the grand picture of the world according to Biden, |
| 1:02.3 | I wanted to understand what the president's calculation actually was |
| 1:05.9 | when it came to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. |
| 1:09.6 | Alex Ward is a national security reporter at the News Organization Politico based in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:15.7 | Alex Ward, as far as you can tell, what was Joe Biden's calculation when it came to the timetable |
| 1:21.2 | for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and what would happen? |
| 1:24.8 | In his mind, first, he just felt that withdrawal was necessary. It's something he |
| 1:28.1 | wanted to do when he was vice president, and it's something he now did as president. He initially said |
| 1:33.9 | the date for the full withdrawal would be September 11th, which of course would be a nice symbolic move |
| 1:38.6 | for the United States, because that is the 20th anniversary of the attacks. But the withdrawal was |
| 1:43.4 | actually going much faster, and I think even |
... |
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