President Joe Biden will embark in Europe this weekend for high-stakes meetings with G-7 and NATO allies and partners as Russia advances into eastern Ukraine.
But foreign policy summits are about to be overshadowed by domestic politics, most notably the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. Wade, as well as the highest inflation in the last 41 years.
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The Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling opposing Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization came as no surprise to Democratic strategist Tom Cochran, a former state-branch student in the Obama administration.
“Possibly very well there would be violent protests, but there is also a crisis of global inflation, power disorders and a war in Ukraine that must be resolved simultaneously,” he told the Washington Examiner. “As president, he can’t deal with just one. You have to take care of everyone in the most sensible of everything else. “
Stephen Sestanovich, a professor at Columbia University, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a former security official and a former diplomat, agreed.
“As long as it looks like Biden is keeping the Western alliance cats well and getting them to do things to help stabilize our economy, he’ll be fine,” he said.
Biden did not hesitate to point out the electoral repercussions of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the November midterm cycle, as his approval drops below 40 percent, according to RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight polling averages. The figures are basically due to dissatisfaction with the president’s economic situation. management, with customer costs emerging 8. 6% in the 12 months to May.
Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision, Biden criticized the court for dismantling “a woman’s right to choose, her right to make incredibly non-public decisions with her doctor, without interference from politics. “a century ago, with the opinion written through an opinion approved by Republican President Richard Nixon, repeating that “this fall, Roe is on the ballot. “
After imploring abortion advocates “to keep all protests peaceful,” Biden reiterated that “this resolution will not be the last word” and that he will have “more to say in the coming weeks” before leaving Cross Hall unanswered questions. The briefing with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was canceled, prompting court cases from the White House Correspondents Association.
Jean-Pierre asked the day before how Biden and his aides were preparing “to manage their national program 4,000 miles away. “
“Look, we believe a president can do his homework anywhere, anywhere, anytime, so it’s not a fear for us,” he said. speaking of genuine issues that are important to all parties, this is also a vital program for the president to keep moving forward. “
Biden departs for Schloss Elmau, Germany, on June 25 to attend the annual G-7 leaders’ summit. This assembly is expected to be governed by Ukraine, adding the food and energy shortages created by the Russian invasion and the coronavirus pandemic. then to Madrid on June 28 for the 2022 NATO Summit, where the alliance is expected to announce some other Strategic Concept.
NATO’s latest Strategic Concept was published in 2010, and this iteration of the plan-making document may undermine the NATO-Russia Founding Act of 1990, according to Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Russia will be treated as an adversary. Essentially, where NATO is headed is towards a Cold War stance in terms of wanting to strengthen the frontline states that border Russia, just as NATO did during the Soviet period,” he said. a CSIS event.
The NATO club of Sweden and Finland will be discussed amid Turkey’s opposition, as will the organization to China, Bergmann predicted.
Bergmann’s colleague Matthew Goodman, CSIS’s senior vice president of economics, said the G-7 summit will question the group’s willingness to “substantial new sanctions” given inflation, as Italy calls for “a cartel of oil importers. “
The concept of a greater balance between Ukraine and inflation was also addressed by Rose Gottemoeller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s nuclear policy program and Charles Kupchan, a professor at Georgetown and a senior fellow at CFR.
“It is vital to perceive the messages that will be conveyed to the audience about inflation and this long term and the need to tighten our belts,” Gottemoeller said Friday in a CEIP commitment.
Kupchan said the G-7 communicated specifically about the “political and economic reaction” and the end of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, admitting that it was involved in the superior performance of “the American Republican crowd first” in the fall.
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“Biden’s chances in the November midterm elections don’t look good, do they?” he said. “Most people think the House is going to change and so is the Senate, so the G-7 would be a very smart position to talk about the effects of the war on the global economy and what can be done to deal with inflation. “