Much speculation has emerged over Vice President Kamala Harris’ approach to US foreign policy in the days since the former California Attorney General was announced as Joe Biden’s chosen successor Sunday.
Harris, who served in the US Senate from 2017 until 2021, has taken on a relatively low profile. Observers have speculated she has been deliberately tasked with selling controversial policies to the public during her time as Biden’s second in command, as when she was dispatched to Guatemala in 2021 to warn prospective migrants against coming to the United States.
“Frankly, we don’t know what she’s going to do on the international scene. There's nothing that she has said or done that gives us any indication of what her stance is on anything,” claimed commentator Michael Maloof.
The former senior security analyst at the US Department of Defense joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines program Wednesday to contemplate the possible foreign policy of a Harris administration as much of the world seeks development independent of the United States and the Western liberal world order.
Host Jamarl Thomas suggested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address before a joint session of Congress Wednesday could be an early indicator of Harris’ approach to the politics of international affairs, if not the substance. Harris has made headlines by refusing to attend Netanyahu’s speech as polling shows Democratic Party voters increasingly sympathize with Palestinians in the long running conflict between Israelis and the indigenous inhabitants of the Levant.
But Harris has agreed to meet with the controversial Israeli leader during his time in Washington, leading Thomas to suggest her apparent dispute with Netanyahu is “an optics issue” rather than a difference of policy.
“I agree,” responded Maloof. “She doesn’t want to be associated with him publicly… That’s why she’s not showing up at the joint session.”
The analyst claimed Harris, who is some 22 years younger than President Biden, may be naturally inclined toward younger Americans’ sympathy for the Palestinian cause but would be constrained by the actions of her predecessor. Maloof suggested it would be especially difficult for the politician to chart a new course on relations with Russia, which remains locked in a US-backed proxy war with Ukraine.
“I’m afraid that if they continue the policy toward Russia, as they are right now, that when [Anatoly] Antonov, the current Russian ambassador, leaves, that he will not be replaced. I think [Russia will] downgrade relations,” said Maloof. “We’re making it much more difficult to renew any relations.”
“We’re almost on the verge of a war because of a hoax,” he added, referring to the conspiracy theory that Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 US presidential election. “That’s basically what this amounts to and our relationships in the world are now complicated as a consequence.”
“I’ve never seen within three and a half years how we have bungled things so poorly on the international scene when we have all these very smart, educated people at the helm, supposedly, and we’re going in the direction we’re going. It’s unbelievable.”
In the 1990s the United States emerged as the world’s lone superpower after the fall of the Soviet Union, possessing greater political, cultural, and economic influence than any other nation. But as 21st century US militarism has led to the deaths of some 4.5 million people, countries of the Global South have increasingly rallied behind Moscow and Beijing to seek alternatives to Western hegemony, demonstrated by the emergence of institutions like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS economic bloc.
Russia and China have also played a greater role in global diplomacy over the last decade, with both countries hosting important reconciliation talks between Palestinian political factions this year. Beijing turned heads last March when it announced it had brokered a surprise deal between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, while Russia has made important inroads in Africa offering security assistance to counter jihadist groups, which are often backed by US Gulf allies.
“Because of this multipolar order concept we are seeing more of a shift by countries who have been subject historically to colonization,” Maloof posited. “They are rebelling and [among] the few countries that have not been involved in colonization were Russia and China. That's why you're seeing the Global South – Africa, Latin America, Asia – generally gravitating toward this Eurasian concept, toward BRICS, the SCO.”
“[BRICS] is becoming, by the way, not just an economic institution, but it could become the defense institution against NATO because NATO wants to expand to the Pacific,” he added. The controversial military alliance has strengthened ties with traditional Western allies like Colombia, Japan, and Australia as NATO leaders paint Moscow and Beijing as the primary threats to the US-led world order.
Maloof said Harris would be unlikely to overcome the influence of the United States’ foreign policy establishment if she sought to renew ties with Russia. The formidable confluence of military, intelligence and financial interests – alternatively referred to as “the Deep State” or “the Blob” – has historically remained hostile towards the Eurasian world power irrespective of which president occupies the Oval Office.
“Irrespective of which president it is, there’s going to be this contentious relationship that we have with Russia,” claimed the analyst. “I think that Kamala will be an extension and because she doesn’t have that foreign policy footprint, I think she’s much more likely to toe the traditional US Democrat or Republican line.”