{"id":63880,"date":"2021-04-16T11:30:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T01:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=63880"},"modified":"2021-04-16T11:28:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T01:28:39","slug":"macron-is-bidens-best-bet-for-a-european-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/macron-is-bidens-best-bet-for-a-european-partner\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron is Biden\u2019s best bet for a European partner"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In French President Emmanuel Macron, the United States has the best ally it could hope for in the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace. In fact, Macron may now be the only US allied leader with a genuine liberal-internationalist worldview to match that of US President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s options for a truly reliable partner in Europe are, sadly, few nowadays. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson may fancy himself as the second coming of Winston Churchill, but as long as he\u2019s in power, his Trumpian-scale mendacity and madcap approach to policymaking will make it essentially impossible for the Biden administration to find much value in the old \u2018special relationship\u2019.<\/p>\n

Germany, meanwhile, had over recent years increasingly come to look like America\u2019s key ally in Europe, owing to its economic heft and the cool, deliberate leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel. But Merkel\u2019s 15-year chancellorship will end later this year, and that will undoubtedly change the strategic calculus.<\/p>\n

Given this, Philip Stephens of the Financial Times <\/em>isn\u2019t wrong to suggest<\/a> that, \u2018if Biden wants a reliable European partner, he would do better to look to America\u2019s oldest ally\u2019: France. While Merkel \u2018will admit no equal when it comes to bold declarations about upholding democracy, playing by the multilateral rules and respecting human rights\u2019, nor will she (or presumably her successor) allow these concerns \u2018to threaten Germany\u2019s economic interests\u2014not least its business dealings with China and Russia\u2019.<\/p>\n

With a commitment to France\u2019s economic revival to match that of Merkel\u2019s in Germany, Macron also offers something that she doesn\u2019t: a clear, realistic assessment of the world and of the challenges facing the West. Unlike any other Western leader today, Macron not only grasps the global power shifts underway, but has initiated a far-sighted military reform agenda to confront this new age of uncertainty. He understands that France needs not only greater military readiness but also an updated military doctrine, and has now put the country on track<\/a> to meet its NATO pledge to spend 2% of GDP on defence.<\/p>\n

But Macron, buffeted by the pandemic, faces a difficult presidential election next April. Although he retains a lead over his main rival, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally, there\u2019s no denying that it could be a close race<\/a>. Biden clearly understands that a Le Pen victory would be a disaster for the transatlantic alliance, the European Union and ultimately the US. The West will have traded Donald Trump in Washington for his female doppelganger in Paris. The big winner, once again, would be Russian President Vladimir Putin, because Le Pen\u2014whose party previously relied on loans from Russian banks<\/a>\u2014would surely set about destroying both NATO and the EU.<\/p>\n

For the US, then, it\u2019s time to act. The first and best thing the Biden administration could do to bolster Macron\u2019s standing is to send more vaccines to France immediately. To be seen brokering a deal for a reliable supply of vaccines would be a giant feather in Macron\u2019s cap. Indeed, the pandemic has created an opportunity for American ingenuity to serve both US domestic and security interests. Biden should seize it.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Biden and Macron are closely aligned on a number of key economic issues. While Biden wants to claw back tax money from big tech firms, Macron has been demanding the same within the OECD, and his finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has been conducting talks with the US to that end for years.<\/p>\n

With Trump in power, these French efforts mostly went nowhere. But now a new grand bargain has become a realistic prospect. Just this month, Le Maire expressed<\/a> hope that \u2018we can also move forward with [US Secretary of the Treasury] Janet Yellen on the taxation of digital services to reach a comprehensive agreement at the level of the OECD in the summer\u2019. And his German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, added, \u2018It is now realistic to expect that we will reach agreement this year on an international framework for a minimum tax rate for companies, alongside better taxation of the digital economy.\u2019<\/p>\n

Until now, the sticking point has been US opposition to letting other countries tax the sales revenues that big tech companies generate in their jurisdictions. But now that the Biden administration needs to clinch a global corporate tax deal, it may concede this point, offering a victory to the leader who has been championing a digital-services tax: Macron.<\/p>\n

If the US and France can both agree to a global minimum corporate tax rate, the OECD will be likely to go along; and where the OECD goes, the world will follow. In this way, a global grand bargain could offer a big boost to US tax revenues at a critical moment, and a significant political victory for Macron, who is too often wrongly portrayed (by the far left and far right) as a tool of big business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In French President Emmanuel Macron, the United States has the best ally it could hope for in the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace. In fact, Macron may now be the only US allied leader with a genuine liberal-internationalist …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1338,"featured_media":63882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1905,959,2825,2397],"class_list":["post-63880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu","tag-joe-biden","tag-us-alliances"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMacron is Biden\u2019s best bet for a European partner | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/macron-is-bidens-best-bet-for-a-european-partner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Macron is Biden\u2019s best bet for a European partner | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In French President Emmanuel Macron, the United States has the best ally it could hope for in the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace. 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