Biden forced to pivot foreign policy focus to crises in neighboring nations

President Joe Biden has staked his presidency on America’s return — a return to normalcy amid the coronavirus pandemic, a return to the global stage following four years of Trump-era isolationism and, arguably, a return to many of the policy positions adopted by the Obama administration.

But recent incidents in the Caribbean mark a moment in which the Biden administration may be in uncharted territory. While issues related to Russia, China and the Northern Triangle have been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s foreign policy priorities, violence and demonstrations taking place just off of America’s coast have forced the White House’s response. First came a presidential assassination in Haiti.

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was killed during an attack last week on his private residence in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s first lady, Martine Moïse, was also shot in the attack and evacuated to a hospital in Miami for treatment.

The assassination has left the nation in deeper turmoil, leaving a power vacuum and coming as Haiti has been dealing with a wave of extreme violence, a growing humanitarian crisis and a worsening Covid-19 pandemic. Then came rare demonstrations in Cuba. Thousands of Cubans took to the streets on Sunday to protest a lack of food and medicine as the country undergoes a grave economic crisis aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic and US sanctions.

The dual crises come at a time when the President would rather be focusing his attention on domestic issues like infrastructure and voting rights, a subject on which he’s set to give a major speech on Tuesday.

When it comes to foreign affairs the White House has been preoccupied with the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and resetting American foreign policy to focus on powers in the Eastern Hemisphere like Russia and China.