When Joe Biden snatched the presidency of the United States from Donald Trump, there was naturally an atmosphere of relief in the governments of the Western world as the Republican had become a disturbing figure for world peace. Added to this was the attitude he took towards the fight for Covid vaccination in the United States and the rapid spread of the virus, which within a very short time placed the North American country at the top of the world ratings in number of fatalities per million inhabitants. This propelled Biden to victory, and in the end, the coronavirus clearly prevailed in voters' minds over the economy, which was Trump’s great argument for four more years in the White House.
This November 3rd has marked a year since those elections and Biden’s balance sheet cannot be poorer and bleaker, as was seen at last weekend’s G-20 meetings and at the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow. On the verge of turning 79, he seems unable to be the president who will lead the response to the major global challenges and his prestige has been lost, according to the polls published on the first anniversary of his electory victory. He appears as the third most-unpopular US president of the modern era with 43% of citizens giving him a pass mark and 51% rejecting him. Only Trump himself (39% approval) and Gerald Ford (38%) had lower approval in the first twelve months of their presidencies.
There are many factors that have weakened Biden. From economic uncertainties to the relapses in pandemic contagion but none has had the devastating effect of the hurried departure of US troops from Afghanistan last August. The American middle classes experienced that flight as a trauma since it reminded many of the Vietnam War and even now the American president has not been able to find a narrative capable of breaking or redirecting that sentiment. The result is a weak leadership which has crossed paths with a strengthened Vladimir Putin and the seventh president of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, able to forge strategic alliances.
None of this is good news, especially at a time when a decapitated Europe is about to lose its only important international reference, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, as soon as the agreement between the Social Democratic election winners and the Greens and liberals is concluded. Such gaps leave the West clearly disarmed in the face of challenges that will arise in the coming years such as rising energy prices and growing instability - the possibility of a major future electrical blackout is now a topic for discussion in several European governments - and the alliances for global trade with clearly favourable economic cooperation for both.
In this context, the United States is rapidly losing its hegemony, and who knows if, perhaps, the world order we have known is irreversibly retreating.