Biden’s Presidency should promote global multilateralism – Antwi-Danso

Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), says he expects newly inaugurated United States President Joe Biden to promote global multilateralism.

He said pursuing multilateralism, which referred to an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal, would ensure that the US takes its rightful position to provide global leadership.

Dr Antwi-Danso stated this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the inauguration of President Biden, which took place at the Capitol in Washington DC on January 20.

The Dean recalled that during former President Donald Trump’s era, multilateral approach to global affairs came under attack.

Former President Trump’s agenda was “America First” however, Dr Antwi-Danso noted that President Biden was more likely to take corporative approach to international issues.

“Biden’s coming soon after Trump is very important; because it looks as though Biden is the direct opposite of Trump and so Biden has a lot of things to repair on his plate.”

Dr Antwi-Danso said on the domestic front, President Biden needed first and foremost to unite the US and ensure that democracy as known in the US prevailed.

On the international front, the Dean maintained that multilateralism started hiccupping badly under former President Trump because of his withdrawal from several multilateral organizations and several multilateral agreements such as the Paris Climate Change Accord, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (The Iran Nuclear Deal), which hurt the international community.

Dr Antwi-Danso said global multilateralism was the way to go, saying unilateralism and bullying had no place in the global arena.

He said President Biden had the role to repair damages done to multilateralism by his predecessor.

“And I think one of the first things President Biden has done is to show that he is for multilateralism. He is not going to threaten the UN, he is not going to threaten what the world would say we should do, he is not going to threaten the International Criminal Court (ICC), and he is not going to threaten the World Health Organisation (WHO) and things like that,” the Dean said.

“So, the reversal that we saw him doing is a sign that he is going to repair the multilateral nature of global politics today.” Dr Antwi-Danso said again that was an indication that President Biden wanted to put America back where America was – “that is global leadership”.

He said President Biden wanted to show to the world that American leadership was going to come back through liberalism, globalization and multilateralism.

He said President Biden’s leadership meant a lot for Africa, stating that when multilateral organisations such as the ICC and the WHO were functioning well, Africa and the rest of the developing world stood to benefit a lot. He said at the assumption of Office of President Biden, world leaders “seems to be saying we can now see a better world”.

Dr Antwi-Danso reiterated that expectations from Biden by the global community seemed to be very huge.

He said the biggest challenge to everything that President Biden would be doing was how to tackle the COVID-19 problem, stating that “we don’t know where COVID is taking us”.

With regards to the US rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, Dr Antwi-Danso said: “It is a big plus. Everybody is saying hurray! Because the world is gradually dying and for him to come back to the Paris accord, I think we all need to applaud him for that”.

The Dean said humanity needed the Paris Climate Change Accord order to sustain the world.

“And America is a big player, once America sneezes, we all cough. And therefore if America is coming on board, we are all therefore hands-on- desk to sustain the world. For the environmentalist, is a plus and for all of us is a bigger plus.”

He appealed to President Biden to help remake the world on the principles of live-and-let’s-live, saying: “Mutual kind of respect. Mutually beneficial kind of principles and if that comes then the world will be more peaceful”.

He said the US President must cooperate with the so called prestige enemies, namely China and Russia in order to “sort of make the world a liveable place”.

“For all the world, we must also try and help America for America to recognize that there is another part of the world, and so multilateralism is the principle for global governance,” he said.