Third, the Plan for Partnership foreshadows the priority shift of the future Biden administration. Second, Biden pledged to undertake a review of watch list and no-fly list processes, in order to “ensure that they do not have an adverse impact on individuals or groups based on national origin, race, religion or ethnicity, and improve the process to remove names, when justified, from these lists.” Watch lists have also long been criticised for disproportionately targeting certain ethnic and religious minorities, as well as for making it extremely hard to challenge once someone’s name has been included on such a list. Recognising the failure of this initiative, Biden also committed to conducting a thorough review of past efforts before launching any new prevention programs. Launched under the Obama presidency as Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programme, then later rebranded under Trump as TVTP, the prevention programme has been criticised by civil rights advocates as discriminatory and unfairly targeting of Muslim communities. First, according to the Plan, the Biden administration commits to ending the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Program. On the one hand, this document focuses on re-setting the relationship with Arab Americans in the context of race and discrimination, and on the other, it also outlines important implications for Biden’s future counter-terrorism strategy.
In August 2020, the Biden campaign published a Plan for Partnership with the Arab American community. Much of his programme released during the campaign also echoes this sentiment and seem to focus on reviewing criticised counter-terrorism policies at home, rather than engaging in large-scale, extensive and costly operations abroad.
The importance of tackling climate change, transitioning to an equitable, clean and resilient energy future are underpinning themes across the new president’s national security priorities, while counter-terrorism takes a back seat. This sentiment is further reflected in the strategy, where the challenges posed by a worsening climate crisis have taken over as an “existential risk” to the US. But terrorism is not an existential threat.” he saidbefore the presidential elections in 2016. It can kill relatively large numbers of people. As early as during his role as Vice President, Biden made it clear that he does not consider terrorism an existential threat to the US (as opposed to an unintended nuclear conflict for instance). A shift away from focusing on terrorism and tuning down counter-terrorism efforts have also long been in the making. The newly published document does not reveal big surprises to those who have been following Biden’s words during his campaign for the presidency last year. At the same time, they also provide an opportune moment to reset the course of US foreign policy. Coupled with political tensions following the riots on the US Capitol in January, as well as the disruptive four years of his predecessor and its effects on traditional US alliances, these challenges put an enormous pressure on the incoming president. There are many expectations of Biden in terms of reversing some of the most controversial policies of the previous administration, from immigration laws to the abandonment of the Paris Agreement, as well as addressing major global threats the US is facing, such as the Covid-19 pandemic or Iran’s race to acquiring nuclear capabilities. A document of this nature does not allow for bold, new ideas – that is not its purpose, – however, it does convey important messages on the direction the new president aims to steer the country.
President Biden’s relatively short Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (only 24 pages, compared to Donald Trump’s 68 pages) outlines the main national security priorities of the new US presidency. A review of past practices and a refocusing of priorities, as opposed to big commitments, seem to characterise the new president’s counter-terrorism strategy. Counter-terrorism has been replaced by the threat posed by traditional state actors, such as China and Russia, as well as a looming climate crisis as the main challenge facing the United States today. President Joe Biden released his Interim National Security Strategic Guidance last month.
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