Biden Wants to Convince the U.N. That America Is Back. The World Isn’t So Sure.

When Joe Biden makes his first presidential address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, his basic task will be obvious: to reassure world leaders that the U.S. is ready to embrace multilateral diplomacy again after the turbulent years of Donald Trump and “America First.” Biden should have no problem convincing his audience that he is friendlier towards the U.N. than his predecessor. But while the president talks a good game about international cooperation, his first few months in office have suggested that the Biden administration isn’t as committed to the U.N. as it would like the world to believe.

Judging by conversations with diplomats and international officials in Turtle Bay in recent months, Biden will face a General Assembly that is skeptical of his administration’s willingness to invest seriously in international cooperation. Indeed, on more traditional foreign-policy issues from Afghanistan to Israel to China, the administration has displayed a fairly typical ambivalence toward the U.N. But by focusing on climate change and Covid-19 — two genuinely global challenges that demand a multilateral response — Biden has an opportunity to win the doubters over and reassert American determination to solve problems through international cooperation.

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