(CNN)Should Joe Biden win the upcoming US presidential election, his first and
overwhelming foreign policy challenge will be winning back the trust of America's allies.
With the planet in its most chaotic period since World War II, a steady Biden leadership
could potentially reset the world order -- but only with allies' help.
European allies in particular will be hoping that if he does become president, Biden
swiftly makes a convincing case that President Donald Trump's four years in office
were an anti-democratic aberration that can never be repeated. Without such an
understanding it will be difficult to convince friendly nations that Biden's own
replacement won't renege on deals he makes.
Biden committed to this during a speech in New York in July last year promising to
"invite my fellow democratic leaders to put strengthening democracy back on the
global agenda." But it will take more than words to overcome the uncertainty.
Quick confidence-builders could include recommitting the US to the 2015 Paris
Agreement on Climate Change, from which Trump began formally withdrawing in
2019. Biden promised as much during his New York speech saying, "I will re-join the
Paris Climate Accord and convene a summit of the world's largest carbon emitters,
rallying nations to raise their ambitions and push our progress further."