Biden's Doppelganger for the UN

by Amir Taheri

• [W]hen you lack a foreign policy, why not pretend that you have one by holding an international summit?
• To start with, what does Biden mean by democracy?
• Biden's invitation excludes at least 20 long-standing allies of the United States.
• ... Obama went around the UN and its agencies on a number of issues, including the "nuclear deal" with the mullahs of Tehran, the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, and the public-relations hoax known as "saving the planet".
• The doppelganger may furnish the emptiness for a few days and furnish a rudderless administration with a few favorable headlines. But it will provide no answer to problems the world faces today, problems that cannot be tackled without the participation of all nations within the framework of a world order based on law, not ideology.

When you lack a foreign policy, why not pretend that you have one by holding an international summit? US President Joe Biden has certified 109 countries as "democracies" by inviting them to a virtual "Summit for Democracy." What does Biden mean by democracy? Biden's invitation excludes at least 20 long-standing allies of the US. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

What do India, Iraq and the Solomon Islands have in a common?

The answer is that US President Joe Biden has certified all three as "democracies" along with 106 other countries, by inviting them to a virtual "Summit for Democracy" on December 9-10, 2021.

Biden's move reminds me of one of my favorite French phrases: Furnishing the emptiness.

In this case, when you lack a foreign policy, why not pretend that you have one by holding an international summit?

And what is the summit going to discuss?

Well, three objectives have been set: Defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting human rights. Something else forgotten -- maybe motherhood and apple pie?

The trouble is that the entire project, a hasty and poorly thought-out public relations gimmick, is built around concepts that are never defined.

To start with, what does Biden mean by democracy?

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