Frank Islam
AFTER months of trench warfare and 84 seemingly endless hours of counting votes, the verdict is finally in: Joseph R Biden, Jr is the President-elect of the United States. He will take office as the 46thPresident on 20 January 2021. The quadrennial dance of democracy ended exactly the way many had feared: in a deeply divided country and a closer contest than some would have liked. Those who were hoping for a landslide Biden win, as several opinion polls had predicted, were disappointed. But one thing is certain: the American electorate has delivered a number of clear messages, some of them heartening and others not so encouraging. Joe Biden’s victory provides the potential to change the US society positively and to send positive waves of change around the world to South Asia and Pakistan. President-elect Joe Biden provides a stark contrast to President Donald Trump. Based upon his personality, I have referred to him in the past as a “person of three I’s”: Internationalist, Integration and Insight. In the Senate, Biden served on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee for three decades and for a period of time was its chair. As Vice-President, he played a critical role in helping to develop the Obama’s Administration policy on Afghanistan, Iraq and other conflict areas.
Contrary to Trump, Biden would support immigration policies that are neither “morally bankrupt” nor “racist.” The policies of his administration would be beneficial to all groups such as Muslims, Latin Americans and South Asians, which were used as soft targets by Trump. One can find Biden’s ‘openness for all communities’ in his Ramadan message this year. “Next year, we hope that Muslim Americans will gather together once again to celebrate and pray alongside friends and neighbours during Ramadan. And if I have the honour of being elected President, the annual White House Eid celebration will be reinstated, and the doors of the White House will reopen as a home for all Americans – and a workplace made stronger by the contributions and ideas of Muslim public servants.” What does Biden’s election mean for Pakistan? There will be a fresh start in policy for Pakistan and other South Asian countries. Trump’s foreign policy has largely been personal and transactional. He routinely ignored the U.S. Department of State which has the world’s largest collection of foreign policy experts. Under the Biden administration, the bilateral relations with Pakistan will go back to being institutionally-centred and subject-matter expert driven. Biden understands Pakistan better than most of American Presidents. As former Vice President, member and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden has a long history of interface with Pakistan.
As Vice President, he had a major role in shaping the landmark Kerry-Lugar Bill signed into law in 2009. That Bill provided $7.5 billion of non-military aid to Pakistan from 2010 to 2014. Biden has visited Pakistan several times. During one visit in 2015, he was given the Hilal-e-Pakistan, Pakistan’s top civilian award for the role he played in contributing to democracy and social economic development in Pakistan. He went onto state “I propose that our policy should not be based on an individual but on Pakistani people making it clear that it is unconditional. We are prepared to give $ 1billion or $ 5oo million economic aid every year to Pakistan. Thirdly, I think that we should make it very clear that any military aid would be transparent…” Some areas in the Pakistan-US relationship with Biden as President and under his Administration will be more complex. Finally, there is the continuing and contentious Pakistan-India standoff. There are no easy answers on how to resolve the problematic matters between these two nations. One can hope, however, that given Biden’s substantial insights and those who he will bring to the table that they will be able to help make some progress on that front too. His Administration should have the credibility to involve India in a meaningful way. This will enable Pakistan to have the right environment to improve its own economic conditions. In summary, after a chaotic and tortuous 4-year period with Trump in office, Joe Biden’s victory and Presidency will bring soothing winds of positive change and progress to the United States, Pakistan and the world.
—The writer is an Entrepreneur, Civic Leader, and Thought Leader based in Washington DC.
