Australia and France: After Afghanistan, Biden’s foreign policy blunders continue

Posted By: James Rowles September 17, 2021

Draft

The United States just entered a deal with Australia to help them build nuclear submarines.

The only problem is, they did this behind the back of France.

Moreover, France had a multi-billion dollar deal to build submarines for Australia.

If the three countries were companies, this would probably amount to tortious interference with business relationships, for which the United States would be liable.

This is another large foreign policy blunder, not as catastrophic as the withdrawal from Afghanistan, but further evidence of the incompetence of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Biden’ s foreign policy team.

This is how “America First” is working under the Biden regime. First, as in you never think of anyone else, or their legitimate interests and concerns.

Under Biden, “America First” means America acts alone. ln Afghanistan. Now, with submarines for Australia.

The ship-building industry in France is critically important, not only to France but also to NATO and the entire Western alliance.

Biden can talk forever about human rights, but it is his policy toward Afghanistan that policymakers in other countries and historians will remember.

Biden may say “America is back”, but it is actions and not words that count. Biden’s submarine deal with Australia behind the back of France suggests that America as a trustworthy alliance partner is NOT back.

The Biden foreign policy appears lack a critical characteristic of foreign policy competence: breadth of vision, and the ability to see how things are connected.

The Trenchant Observer

About the Author

James Rowles

"The Trenchant Observer" is edited and published by James Rowles (aka "The Observer"), an author and international lawyer who has taught International Law, Human Rights, and Comparative Law at major U.S. universities, including Harvard, Brandeis, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Kansas. Dr. Rowles is a former staff attorney at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States OAS), in Wasington, D.C., , where he was in charge of Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and the United States, and also worked on complaints from and reports on other countries including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. As an international development expert, he has worked on Rule of Law, Human Rights, and Judicial Reform in a number of countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Russian Federation. In the private sector, Dr. Rowles has worked as an international attorney for a leading national law firm and major global companies, on joint ventures and other matters in a number of countries in Europe (including Russia and the Ukraine), throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan. The Trenchant Observer blog provides an unfiltered international perspective for news and opinion on current events, in their historical context, drawing on a daily review of leading German, French, Spanish and English newspapers as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other American newspapers, and on sources in other countries relevant to issues being analyzed. Dr. Rowles speaks fluent English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, and also knows other languages. He holds an S.J.D. or Doctor of Juridical Science in International Law from Harvard University, and a Doctor of Law (J.D.) and a Master of the Science of Law (J.S.M.=LL.M.), from Stanford University. As an undergraduate, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, also from Stanford, where he graduated “With Great Distinction” (summa cum laude) and received the James Birdsall Weter Prize for the best Senior Honors Thesis in History. In addition to having taught as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, Dr. Rowles has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs (CFIA). His fellowships include a Stanford Postdoctoral Fellowship in Law and Development, the Rómulo Gallegos Fellowship in International Human Rights awarded by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and a Harvard MacArthur Fellowship in International Peace and Security. Beyond his articles in The Trenchant Observer, he is the author of two books and numerous scholarly articles on subjects of international and comparative law. Currently he is working on a manuscript drawing on some the best articles that have appeared in the blog.