New World Order and Joe Biden

You know, we are at an inflection point. I believe, in the world economy — not just the world economy, in the world. It occurs every three or four generations. As one of — as one of the top military people said to me in a secure meeting the other day, 60 — 60 million people died between 1900 and 1946. And since then, we’ve established a liberal world order, and that hadn’t happened in a long while. A lot of people dying, but nowhere near the chaos. And now is a time when things are shifting. We’re going to — there’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it. And we’ve got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it.

That was Joe Biden, in a March 21 meeting of the Business Roundtable. The Delaware Democrat didn’t clarify whether the 60 million deaths from 1900 to 1946 were due to warfare, internal repressions, or natural causes. According to the Black Book of Communism, Stalin’s USSR was responsible for the murder of 25 million people during that same span.

Since 1946, Biden said, “we’ve established a liberal world order,” without explaining how the USSR, Communist China, and other dictatorships fit in. Whatever the explanation, we now need another new world order. Biden thinks “we” have to lead it, but no detail on how the new order might work. The World Economic Forum is talking up a “Great Reset,” that doesn’t look particularly liberal, and doesn’t seek American leadership.

While they attempt to make sense of Joe Biden’s prophecy, Americans might recall George H.W. Bush, the only president who previously headed the Central Intelligence Agency. Bush ran on a promise of “no new taxes” and on September 11, 1990, touted a “new world order” that would be “freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace.” In this new era, “the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony” and “nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice.” 

Things didn’t quite work out that way, and Joe Biden seems unsure how to proceed with his own new global arrangement. He might start by strengthening liberty, harmony, and prosperity within the United States. Maybe other nations will follow suit.