Policy Over Pancakes

“America is back” has served as President Joe Biden’s zippy tagline to the world, reassuring allies that the United States is re-adhering to its international commitments. This sentiment is needed nowhere else more than in Asia. As the geopolitical landscape shifts in the Indo-Pacific, renewed American engagement is crucial to securing influence and stability. The United States, in the face of a rising China, needs to strengthen its Asia ally framework, starting with Japan and South Korea (the Republic of Korea/ROK). 

This is not an easy task. Conflict has long characterized Japan-ROK relations. As a consequence of three decades of brutal Japanese occupation, South Korea presently seeks to address wartime grievances, such as forced labor and sexual slavery. Japan has managed to deny and downplay any crimes committed, igniting many diplomatic disputes throughout the decades. Now, recent major trade and security disputes have caused the Japan-South Korea relationship to drastically deteriorate, creating an information-sharing vacuum on China and North Korea. Given this instability, tensions between allies jeopardizes U.S. influence and relationships in the region. 

The United States needs to actively engage in repairing relations between our allies in order to secure and strengthen our influence in the Indo-Pacific. The US can achieve this by further increasing trilateral cooperation between the US, Japan, and South Korea. For example, the State Department, through summit diplomacy, can redirect focus on areas of joint cooperation and on uncertain state actors like China and North Korea. 

The US-Japan-ROK trilateral relationship has proven effective in cooperating security issues regarding aggressive state actors. Despite ongoing tensions, Japan and South Korea have a strong track record with US security collaboration, with all three militaries holding “Defense Trilateral Talks” (DTT) since 2008. The DTT talks have allowed for strengthening the security environment in Korean airspaces. Furthermore, all three countries, in 2014, signed “the Trilateral Information Sharing Agreement,” which allowed increased security cooperation on North Korea. This agreement allowed for classified information exchange on missile defense, strengthening the Northeast Asia security environment. 

The Biden Administration has already taken concrete steps to strengthen its Asia position, focusing on US-Asia alliances. Four years of Trump has destabilized US foreign policy commitments, losing the trust and confidence of longstanding allies, especially in Asia. For example, Japanese officials were highly insulted by their exclusion in US-DPRK summit talks in 2018. US-South Korea relations were negatively affected by Trump’s repeated accusations on South Korea free-riding on the shared defense budget. President Biden has sought to repair this damage by showcasing the importance of Japan and South Korea. In fact, former Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and President Moon Jae-in were the first foreign leaders to visit the White House since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. These high-level meetings have displayed a shared commitment to combating China in economic and military spaces. The administration needs to continue engaging Japanese and South Korean diplomats to work on security and economic frameworks to combat China’s growing rise. 

Reignited focus on the US-Japan-ROK trilateral relationship through summits and framework agreements will be noted as a major step towards alleviating tensions between the two countries, and will be a building block in strengthening the U.S. ally architecture in East Asia. Overall, it is imperative that the United States engage Japan and the ROK to refocus on regional cooperation. Critics argue that the United States has no place in repairing Japan-ROK relations, as these historical issues are deeply embedded in Japanese/ROK domestic politics. However, the United States does not need to solve or even speak to grievances but utilize an option in its diplomatic arsenal that has worked in the past, which will lead to stronger, more robust alliances in the Indo-Pacific.

President-Elect Biden has repeatedly expressed his commitment to furthering more equitable political representation, vowing to pick the most diverse cabinet in history. His newly announced climate change team puts action behind that promise. The team of seven so far includes four women and four people of color. Deb Haaland is Biden’s choice to lead the Department of the Interior, and, if confirmed, she would be the first Native American to hold a cabinet secretary position. There is perhaps no better team to imbue with diversity because as the threat of climate change grows, its racially disproportionate impact becomes more dangerous and apparent.

A 2012 study found that people of color had higher levels of exposure to pollution than those of white people. In 2018, the EPA released a report confirming the existence of environmental racism in America today: people of color are more likely to be exposed to pollution. And the air is not the only part of the environment in which injustices pervade. In 1987, the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice published a report called Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, which showed that race was the most determining factor in selecting toxic waste sites in the United States. These data show that past and current environmental policies are not producing equitable access to clean resources. These policies must be assessed and changed to actively protect people of color.

Environmental racism has always been unacceptable, but today it is more crucial than ever that our leaders work to put an end to it. As the United States struggles with the coronavirus pandemic, individuals with higher exposure to air pollution are at higher risk for contracting severe cases of COVID-19. Because air pollution disproportionately affects people of color, these Americans are particularly vulnerable to the illness. Additionally, the National Academy of Medicine found that people of color in America receive “lower quality health care” than white people. So, not only are minority persons more likely to contract severe COVID-19 cases, but they are less likely to be treated effectively if and when they do.

Biden’s vow to encourage diversity and his recent cabinet picks have drawn criticism as being a new manifestation of old political tactics to maintain peace among political factions. These criticisms bring up an interesting ethical question: is diversity good? Extensive research on political representation supports the argument that diversity in political environments is good. Political scientists often convey the importance of people of color being equitably represented in government. If a segment of a population is underrepresented or not represented at all, there is a danger that the interests and concerns of many will go unheard, which often leads to exploitation, division, and civil unrest. So, a diverse cabinet does stand to benefit the country by ensuring that the interests of historically excluded groups are considered. A racially diverse climate change team has a greater chance of putting an end to environmentally racist policies than a less diverse group because Black and Native American voices will be heard when policy decisions are being made.

Ensuring a diverse group of individuals make up our government also contributes to changing societal norms. Headlines such as “the first woman appointed to” or “the first Black American elected as” may feel commonplace today, but Professor Kelly Dittmar of the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics emphasized that these firsts “disrupt expectations” about who can and should hold certain roles in society. Traditional expectations about certain positions of power can be silent but impassable barriers to entry for women, people of color, and LGBT individuals. When those barriers are broken, the pool of candidates for government offices becomes more representative of the country as a whole.

Biden’s commitment to diversity within his cabinet and on the climate change team, in particular, is a move that stands to produce more equitable policies, particularly those addressing the environment. It is vital that people of color take a large role in environmental policy. Without those perspectives, any administration runs the risk of perpetuating discriminatory environmental policies, even if it makes progress on combatting climate change. While skepticism of political motives is warranted, the increased diversity in the incoming administration stands to increase the level of representation in our democracy and strengthens the chance for a more equitable future environment.