The next U.S. president will have to work in a world facing the greatest risk of great power confrontation since the Cold War.
“The United States remains the most important international actor on peace and security issues,” says Comfort Ero, president and CEO of the International Crisis Group. She added, “But it reduces the power it has to help resolve conflicts.”
It is becoming increasingly difficult to end the war. “As great power competition accelerates and the number of middle powers increases, lethal conflicts are becoming more intractable,” Mr. Ero explains of the landscape. Wars like Ukraine’s bring about multiple factions, and conflagrations like Sudan’s force regional players to compete with each other’s interests, with some investing more in war than peace.
America is losing its moral high ground, Mr. Eero says. “We note that global actors apply one standard to Russia’s actions in Ukraine and a different standard to Israel’s actions in Gaza. “The war in Sudan showed terrible atrocities, but it is being treated as a secondary issue,” he said.
She said Harris’ victory “symbolizes continuity for this administration.” If it were Trump, he said, he “may give Israel a freer hand in Gaza and elsewhere, or hint that he may try to cut Ukraine’s deal with Moscow instead of Kiev.”
In the Middle East, the Democratic candidate has repeatedly said Mr. Biden is a firm supporter of Israel’s “right to self-defense.” However, she also emphasized that “the killing of innocent Palestinians must stop.”
