In Hosting Modi, Biden Pushes Democracy Concerns to the Background

The conflict that “the battle between democracy and autocracy” is, according to President Biden, the defining challenge of his day is “the battle between democracy and autocracy.” However, when Vice President Joe Biden of the United States lays out a red carpet on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday morning for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, he will effectively be calling a temporary cease-fire for the conflict.

Mr. Biden will lavish attention on a leader who is presiding over democratic backsliding in the nation with the most people in the world because he will offer Mr. Modi a coveted state visit that will include a gala supper featuring a star-studded guest list. The way in which Mr. Modi’s government has suppressed dissent and persecuted opponents in a manner that has aroused suspicions of an authoritarian shift in a way that has not been witnessed in India since the country’s slide into dictatorship in the 1970s has raised these fears.

However, Mr Biden has come to the conclusion, much like his predecessors did, that he needs India despite worries over human rights. In the same vein, he believes that he needs Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and other nations that are either autocracies in their purest form or do not fall into the category of perfect democracies. Mr. Biden is being forced to recognise the shortcomings of America’s allies at a time when the United States is in a state of tense confrontation with Russia and an uneasy standoff with China.

The framework of democracy versus autocracy has therefore become something of a geopolitical straitjacket for Mr. Biden, one that conveys little of the subtleties that his foreign policy actually envisions while virtually guaranteeing criticism every time he shakes hands with a counterpart who does not pass the George Washington test. This has resulted in Mr. Biden’s administration becoming something of a geopolitical straitjacket after two and a half years in office. Even some of his most trusted advisors secretly believe that the concept is too black-and-white in a world filled with shades of grey.