President Biden’s Restrained Hamiltonian Foreign Policy

Departing from previous presidential administrations’ internationalist and dysfunctional foreign policies, President J. R. Biden, Jr. has pursued a restrained Hamiltonian foreign policy since assuming office in January 2021. Appreciating that the United States’ declining economic dominance threatens its hegemony, President Biden’s foreign policy primarily focuses on augmenting America’s global economic competitiveness. Moreover, the president’s policy response to the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation’s revisionist challenge to American international leadership centres on neo-containment. Finally, re-engaging the United States’ economic and security networks demonstrates the president’s perception that these networks are essential to American power and security. Perceiving President Biden’s foreign policy as restrained Hamiltonian is central to interpreting the sole superpower’s behaviour and impact on international security politics.