Joe Biden (Photo Credits: IANS)
President Joe Biden has inherited a minefield of issues that each deserve his undivided attention. Given events of the last year, Covid-19, the BLM movement and the state of the economy will of course be at the top of his agenda however, the issues of national security and foreign policy will always demand attention.
Middle Eastern foreign policy will always dominate American politics. Other than Iraq and Afghanistan, Libya is the most contentious of the US’s recent interventions. Libya’s geostrategic significance, nestled between the Middle East and Europe has both been a cause for its trade power, given its rich energy resources, as well as its history of troubles and unrest as different actors try to gain control.
While it may seem as though only one subject has dominated the news for the past year, and our lives came to a very literal standstill, the world did in fact continue to turn; and in recent months, there have been some momentous political developments.
A Brexit deal was hammered out at the eleventh hour ahead of the 1st of January deadline, Donald Trump left the White House, but not before inciting the biggest attack on American democracy in more than 200 years, several Gulf countries officially normalised relations with Israel and the four-year Qatar blockade by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt came to an end when the agreement was reached to restore full diplomatic ties. In hindsight, these all look to be hugely positive events that could potentially have a lasting impact on global peace and stability.