美国11月3日举行的中期选举演变成唐纳德·特朗普的惨败，主要只有一个原因，这由民主党前总统乔·拜登的前国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文一语道破：一个人可以对着“美国优先”絮絮叨叨说到令人作呕，但“外交政策就是内政，内政就是外交政策。”特朗普总统甚至承认，他那场针对伊朗的灾难性战争或许能解释为何他遭到否决。他本该事先考虑到这一点。
The United States' midterm elections, held on November 3, turned into a rout for Donald Trump, largely for one reason, which was summed up by Jake Sullivan, former national security adviser to Democrat ex-president Joe Biden: One can drone on about "America First" ad nauseam, but "foreign policy is domestic policy, and domestic policy is foreign policy." President Trump even admitted that his disastrous war against Iran might explain why he was repudiated. He should have considered that beforehand.
这些选举也是对拜登外交履历进行盘点的契机。这种复盘早就该进行了。在卡玛拉·哈里斯于2024年11月大选失利后，民主党领导层拒绝对他的履历进行辩论。一种看待世界的方式已然消逝，一种新的方式尚未诞生。
These elections also served as an opportunity to take stock of Biden's diplomatic track record. This review was long overdue. The Democratic Party leadership had refused to debate his track record after Kamala Harris's defeat in the November 2024 elections. One way of seeing the world has faded. A new one has yet to be invented.
拜登是最后一位入主白宫椭圆办公室的民主党人，上任时宣称美国“回来了”。他意在终结一段他所描述的、以特朗普为唯一祸根的反常混乱时期。构想是回归一种尊重盟友、尊重构成基于规则的国际秩序的多边机制的外交风格。然而，那种秩序正从四面八方遭受攻击，首先是当时所谓的“修正主义大国”：中国和俄罗斯。
Upon taking office, Biden, the last Democrat to occupy the White House's Oval Office, announced that the US was "back." He intended to close what he described as an aberrant period of disorder, with Trump being touted as its sole cause. The idea was to return to a style of diplomacy that respected alliances and the multilateral mechanisms that comprise the rules-based international order. However, that order was under attack from all sides, starting with what were then called the "revisionist powers": China and Russia.
这番言辞虽动听，却暗藏刺针。拜登曾任参议院外交关系委员会主席，因其国际事务专长被贝拉克·奥巴马选为副总统，他巩固了美国的保护主义政策，承接特朗普衣钵，损害了欧洲利益。拜登还强行推行“奥库斯”军事协议——该协议由美国于2021年与英国、澳大利亚谈判达成——在自己阵营内强行通过，无视了法国的利益。
This rhetoric was eloquent, but laced with barbs. Biden, the former chair of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was chosen by Barack Obama as his vice president for his international expertise, cemented the US's protectionist policy, following on from Trump to the detriment of the Europeans. Biden also pushed the AUKUS military agreement, which the US negotiated with the United Kingdom and Australia in 2021, through his own camp, overriding French interests in so doing.
他的政府在援助遭受攻击的乌克兰、反对侵略者俄罗斯的立场上态度坚定。然而，在2023年10月7日大屠杀发生后，由于对以色列的盲目支持，这一立场受到了动摇。美国在加沙建立的一个临时码头，旨在让被以色列阻挡的人道主义援助得以进入，却成了这一失败的可悲象征——该码头很快就被一场风暴摧毁了。
His administration stood firm on aid to Ukraine, which was under attack, and on opposing Russia, the aggressor. However, it became undermined by its blind support for Israel after the October 7, 2023 massacres. A temporary pier the US set up in Gaza to allow humanitarian aid, which was being blocked by Israel, to enter became a pitiful symbol of that failure – the pier was quickly destroyed by a storm.