The News
Outgoing US President Joe Biden announced an additional $500 million in military aid for Ukraine Thursday, as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets for the final time with Kyiv officials and Western allies at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Ukraine has mounted a renewed offensive inside Russia in recent days, a move analysts say preempts Donald Trump’s return to the White House: Kyiv is looking to strengthen its position at any coming negotiations with Russia, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to see happen as soon as he is in office.
The announcement comes as Biden looks to secure his foreign policy legacy: The administration is looking to expand restrictions on China’s access to advanced AI chip technology, and renewing pressure on Israel and Hamas to agree a ceasefire. Some analysts have argued that Biden was ultimately reactive and over-cautious, helping to pave the way for a second “America First” Trump presidency.
SIGNALS
Biden’s ‘Strategy of Renewal’ airbrushed over administration’s mistakes, analysts argue
The outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued in Foreign Affairs that Joe Biden’s “Strategy of Renewal” — the combined effort to revitalize the US economy and renew diplomatic ties — has left the country “in a much stronger geopolitical position today than it was four years ago.” That narrative, two Stimson Center analysts countered, casts a “glossy veneer” over Biden’s performance: While Biden did mobilize US allies to support Ukraine, that generated a “mirror image response” that saw Russia, China, and other authoritarian regimes close ranks. Ultimately, the Biden administration underscored “the unacknowledged limits of US power,” they wrote.
Biden’s Ukraine policy may have paved the way for Trump’s re-election
Joe Biden’s presidency is inextricably linked to Donald Trump, The Hill argued, with many of Biden’s more grandiose policies triggering boomerang-style responses from his opponents. Biden’s support for Ukraine — the US is the single largest contributor of aid since the start of the war — mounted as Republican support dwindled: Only 36% of Republican-leaning voters said the US has a responsibility to help Ukraine, according to a Nov. 2024 Pew Research Center survey. Yet Biden’s approach to supporting Ukraine was both slower and more cautious than was needed, Foreign Policy wrote, with the president effectively shamed by his European allies into giving Ukraine permission to use US long-range weapons to target Russia. The delay not only limited Ukraine’s success but also alienated voters at home, the outlet argued.