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      Trump Incentives for Signing Peace Accords With Israel Could Be at Risk

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      What Books Should Biden Read? We Asked 22 Writers

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat Books Should Biden Read? We Asked 22 WritersGeorge Will, Min Jin Lee, David Frum, Van Jones and others offer their recommendations to the president-elect.Credit…Ryan Pfluger for The New York TimesDec. 20, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETOn Jan. 20, Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be sworn into office as the 46th president of the United States. From that day forward, he will face countless challenges, including a divided nation, a global pandemic and an increasingly uncertain future.We posed the following question to 22 writers and public figures: “What book would you recommend Joe Biden read to inform his presidency?” Here are their answers.Madeleine Albright recommends‘The Art of the Impossible,’ by Václav Havel“Thirty years ago, Václav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia, a country both energized by democratic hopes and wounded by political and cultural division. His collected speeches reflect an idea of leadership that transcends party and is grounded instead in forgiveness, morality and truth. After years of deception in high places, he told citizens in his first major address, ‘I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you.’”Madeleine Albright is the former U.S. secretary of state and author of, most recently, “Hell and Other Destinations.”Alicia Garza recommends‘Stamped From the Beginning,’ by Ibram X. Kendi“Kendi describes the long trajectory of racist ideas that have shaped policy for generations. President-elect Biden will need depth in understanding that racism isn’t ever about people being mean to each other — instead, racism is about rigged rules that intentionally thwart access to power and resources for those who have been designated as ‘other.’ It would be my hope that this book would guide his decisions on cabinet appointments, executive orders and more.”Alicia Garza is the author of “The Purpose of Power.”George Will recommends‘The Living Presidency,’ by Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash“Prakash, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, argues that the public would be less susceptible to extravagant expectations, and presidents would be more successful because they would be less vulnerable to the public’s disappointments, if a president would reverse the ‘creeping constitutional coup’ that has subverted the idea of ‘an executive subject to the Constitution and the law.’ Joe Biden, with 50 percent more congressional experience (36 Senate years) than any previous president, could benefit from restoring the Constitution’s Madisonian equilibrium by not wielding all the discretionary powers that Congress has improvidently given to the executive.”George Will is the author of, most recently, “The Conservative Sensibility.”Laila Lalami recommends‘Supreme Inequality,’ by Adam Cohen“Whatever else happens during the Biden presidency, the Supreme Court will play a huge role in affirming or striking down voting rights, reproductive rights, immigration, birthright citizenship, marriage equality or environmental protections. In this book, Adam Cohen shows how Richard Nixon’s appointments of four justices to the Court set it on a dangerous rightward course that has consistently undermined the rights of the poor and the disadvantaged while protecting corporations. Cohen’s lucid work provides important context for why the president-elect, and his party, need to make the Court a central concern of their agenda.”Laila Lalami is the author of, most recently, “Conditional Citizens.”Thomas Piketty recommends‘Gold and Freedom,’ by Nicolas Barreyre“This is a fascinating book about the multidimensionality of politics in the Reconstruction period. It is by navigating through these different dimensions that the Democratic Party managed to find its way from Civil War to New Deal and beyond. Today one of the big issues is whether the Democratic Party can regain the confidence of socially disadvantaged voters, independently from their origins. The country has changed a lot since Reconstruction, but there are still lessons to be learned from this period.”Thomas Piketty is the author of, most recently, “Capital and Ideology.”Harriet A. Washington recommends‘To Repair the World,’ by Paul Farmer“Amid raging cultural intolerance and a fatally mismanaged pandemic, Americans, especially people of color, sicken and die as they are pressed into service as ‘essential workers’ living in environmental sacrifice zones. The pandemic’s attendant rise in incivility and xenophobia has catalyzed open racial strife and slapped immigrant children into cages. What daunting challenge doesn’t Joe Biden face, and who can best advise the man who must lead us in repairing this broken nation?“Perhaps the anthropologist, physician and politically savvy human-rights leader who has long and successfully jousted with the specter of medical indifference, governmental mendacity and indifference to the fate of marginalized ‘others’: Paul Farmer’s anthology of speeches offers shorter narratives suited to a busy leader that exude a moral philosophy, blueprint, case histories and deep inspiration for the change of heart that must fuel American atonement and national healing.”Harriet A. Washington is the author, most recently, of “A Terrible Thing to Waste.”David Frum recommends‘The Deluge,’ by Adam Tooze“Candidate Biden talked dangerously enthusiastically about ‘buy American.’ I hope the president-elect will recognize the huge benefits of global free trade — and the terrible dangers to prosperity and peace of ‘America First.’ So many books argue this case so well, but one that made an especially vivid impression on me was Adam Tooze’s: a sophisticated and terrifying history of how the failure to restore a liberal economic order after the catastrophe of World War I pushed the U.S. and the world to global depression and World War II.”David Frum is the author of, most recently, “Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy.Yascha Mounk recommends‘The Subjection of Women,’ by John Stuart Mill“What gives this moving plea for equal rights lasting relevance is that John Stuart Mill did not just describe injustices born by women; he argued that men, too, suffer from them because they will never get to enjoy the pleasures that come from a marriage of equals. As Joe Biden sets out to combat a different set of injustices, Mill can help point his way toward a vision that shows how much we all stand to gain from a more just society — especially if we emphasize how that future will allow us to focus on the affections and aspirations we share, not the petty interests and narrow identities that divide us.”Yascha Mounk is the author of, most recently, “The People vs. Democracy.”Elizabeth Kolbert recommends‘The Future of Life,’ by Edward O. Wilson“The actions of the new administration will affect people around the world and also the untold millions of other species with whom we share this planet. Wilson explains what’s at stake as biodiversity crashes and what needs to be done to stem the losses.”Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of, most recently, “The Sixth Extinction.”Michael Beschloss recommends‘Washington,’ by Ron Chernow“This classic shows how, when our democracy was fragile, a human and courageous leader — through his acts, language and personal example — defined the office of the presidency in order to protect our liberties, defend the country from secret foreign threats, ensure the rule of law, bring our people together and inspire our next generation.”Michael Beschloss is the author of, most recently, “Presidents of War.”Katherine Mangu-Ward recommends‘Coolidge,’ by Amity Shlaes“Calvin Coolidge is rarely counted among the rock-star presidents, but he was soothingly bland after a corrupt and divisive period in American political history. The famously laconic politician managed to leave Washington in better shape than he found it, including the rare feat of reducing the size of the federal budget. Silent Cal reportedly napped every afternoon of his presidency, a habit that might make our 46th president — and all of us — happier, saner and more effective.”Katherine Mangu-Ward is the editor in chief of Reason magazine.Annette Gordon-Reed recommends‘Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880,’ by W.E.B. Du Bois“The book recounts the efforts to remake American society in the wake of the Civil War operating on the premise that African Americans are equal citizens of the United States. Du Bois wrote to counteract historians and others who had portrayed the effort as doomed by Black inferiority. He demonstrates that the successes of interracial government were deliberately sabotaged by white supremacists who preferred to maintain a racial hierarchy rather than move into a future grounded in equal citizenship among all Americans.”Annette Gordon-Reed is the author of, most recently, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs.”Richard Haass recommends‘Present at the Creation,’ by Dean Acheson“The most innovative and successful period of modern American foreign policy came immediately after World War II, something captured by the title of the memoir written by Dean Acheson, President Harry Truman’s fourth and last secretary of state. There has been no comparable burst of creative statecraft since the Cold War ended three decades ago, and President Trump did much to weaken the institutions and relationships that have underpinned U.S. foreign policy for three-quarters of a century. President Biden will inherit a world of disarray; once he has completed the most urgent repairs, the challenge will be to design and build new arrangements that will structure rivalry with China and narrow the gap between the global challenges that will largely define this era and the world’s willingness and ability to respond to them.”Richard Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of, most recently, “The World: A Brief Introduction.”Min Jin Lee recommends‘Evicted,’ by Matthew Desmond“Every ordinary American family has a budget, and our greatest expense is housing. So, how do those among us, who have the least, rest their heads at night without the fear of eviction? What does eviction do to our minds, hearts and our credit history? Desmond’s thorough investigation of the housing crisis in America is both horrifying and compassionate, and it is my hope that President-elect Biden will read this beautiful and important book to know better the lives of ordinary Americans.”Min Jin Lee is the author of, most recently, “Pachinko.”Eddie S. Glaude Jr. recommends‘Baldwin,’ edited by Toni Morrison“Given the moral reckoning we face in this country I would urge President Biden to spend some time with the nonfiction writings of James Baldwin. The book offers a cleareyed view of what rests at the heart of our national malaise, and he writes about it — bear witness to its effects — without a hint of sentimentality.”Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the author of, most recently, “Begin Again.”Kay Hymowitz recommends‘Men Without Work,’ by Nicholas Eberstadt“Eberstadt brings attention to a largely neglected American crisis: the Depression-era levels of working-aged men, most but not all of them with a high school education or less, who have dropped out of the labor market. These ‘detached men’ are key to addressing some of the nation’s most acute socio-economic problems including family breakdown, intergenerational poverty, inequality and ‘deaths of despair.’”Kay Hymowitz is the author of, most recently, “The New Brooklyn.”Ayad Akhtar recommends‘The True and Only Heaven,’ by Christopher Lasch“The last time an American president admitted to reading a book by Christopher Lasch, it led to him losing an election (Jimmy Carter, ‘The Culture of Narcissism’). Which is just to say: If President-elect Biden takes up my suggestion, it might be best if he kept it to himself.“Lasch’s final full-length work is his masterpiece, which, though written almost 30 years ago, foresaw much of the trouble in which we find ourselves today. Inspired, as he puts it, to counter the ‘acquisitive individualism fostered by liberalism’ as well as to revive a ‘sense of civic obligation,’ ‘The True and Only Heaven’ is that rare work of history that offers not only analysis and understanding, but wisdom, and even hope.”Ayad Akhtar is the author, most recently, of “Homeland Elegies.”Angus Deaton recommends‘The Fifth Risk,’ by Michael Lewis“President Biden is going to be very busy, and Lewis’s book is short and lively. Yet it deals with a vital and underappreciated issue, just how much we all depend on a well-functioning government. On how demonizing government has led to private plunder and destruction of our most important common asset, a storehouse of knowledge, science and dedication. Without it, we can neither prosper nor be safe.”Angus Deaton is the author, with Anne Case, of “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.”Van Jones recommends‘The People vs. Democracy,’ by Yascha Mounk“Yascha Mounk does a great job laying out the challenges our country is facing and how to confront the authoritarian right.”Van Jones is the author of, most recently, “Beyond the Messy Truth.”Ai-Jen Poo recommends‘The Purpose of Power,’ by Alicia Garza“Social movements of everyday people have created the context for some of the most important acts of leadership from American presidents — from the labor movement of the 1930s and F.D.R., to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and L.B.J. — acts of leadership that have allowed us to make generational progress out of some of our greatest times of crisis and reckoning. ‘The Purpose of Power,’ written by one of this era’s most important movement-builders, offers essential insight into the power and possibility of movements today, to inspire presidential action that meets our current moment of crisis and opportunity for progress.”Ai-Jen Poo is the author, with Ariane Conrad, of “The Age of Dignity.”Yuval Levin recommends‘American Politics,’ by Samuel P. Huntington“There are many great books the president-elect might consult about the tensions now roiling American life, but since prophecy often runs deeper than analysis, he should read Samuel Huntington’s underappreciated 1981 masterpiece. Huntington describes an ineradicable tension between America’s ideals and the actual practice of our politics, and traces four great explosions of ‘creedal passion’ in our history that have been driven by moral outrage rooted in frustration with that tension — in the revolutionary era, Jacksonian America, the Progressive era, and the late 1960s. He predicts another such wave, mixing populism and a resurgent progressive moralism, right around 2020, and offers insights about our own moment that could help Biden grasp the potential for renewal, but also the enormous danger of the illiberal radicalism overtaking his own party.”Yuval Levin is the author of, most recently, “A Time to Build.”Karla Cornejo Villavicencio recommends‘What It’s Like to Be a Bird,’ by David Allen Sibley“I focus on a few birds every night before I go to bed. Look at the birds that are hated, forcibly sterilized, shot with rifles because they are big and dark and scavenge to survive. Learn what makes them beautiful and ask why God created them. You represent them, too, not just the garden songbirds.”Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is the author of “The Undocumented Americans.”Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Accountability After Trump

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyOpinionSupported byContinue reading the main storyAccountability After TrumpHow can America rebuild democracy’s guardrails and hold the past administration to account for its lawlessness?The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.Dec. 19, 2020Credit…Damon Winter/The New York TimesAfter any major national disaster or failure of government, it’s essential to study what happened and why, if for no other reason than to enact laws and policies aimed at preventing the same thing from happening again. From the Warren Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the Church Committee in the wake of the Watergate scandal, from the commission on the Sept. 11 attacks to the commission on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a thorough official reckoning makes for good government.What could accountability look like in 2021? How does American democracy confront the scale of the damage wrought by the departing president — the brazen obliteration of norms, the abundant examples of criminal behavior, the repeated corruption and abuses of power by the highest officeholder in the land, even after he was impeached?In short, how does America prevent the next Trump administration if it can’t properly hold the current one to account?This is the task facing the country and the next administration, as Joe Biden prepares to assume the presidency after running, and winning, on a platform of national unity and healing. Does restoring the soul of America require an exorcism of the past four years? Or would that only deepen the nation’s divisions, making it impossible to move forward?In a country as polarized as the United States in 2020, making even incremental progress on pressing issues would be a win. We’ve urged Mr. Biden to champion an agenda based on decency. The first step is to dial down the culture wars wherever possible, then pursue a policy agenda where there is ample common ground. But Mr. Biden should also champion accountability after four years that tested the outer limits of what America’s democracy could handle.Credit…Damon Winter/The New York TimesHis victory is itself a powerful form of accountability. A majority of American voters, given the chance to render their verdict on one term of President Trump, rejected his bid for another. Yet defeating Mr. Trump at the polls was only the first step toward recalibrating the country’s moral compass. Two more challenges remain: The first, determining how to investigate the past administration. The second, determining how to ensure that subsequent presidents face more formidable obstacles to wrongdoing than Mr. Trump faced.Any honest accounting of the past four years needs to begin by establishing a shared set of facts about what happened. There is ample evidence already that Mr. Trump and some of his top allies may have broken multiple federal laws by committing campaign-finance violations, lying to federal investigators and obstructing justice, to name a few. Even if he is not prosecuted by federal authorities, Mr. Trump and his businesses face at least two separate tax-fraud investigations in New York. Many of Mr. Trump’s associates have already been convicted of various crimes.Yet there are still many lingering questions, foremost among them: Did the president’s business interests influence his conduct of foreign and domestic policy? The American people have a right to know if that was so.There are also powerful arguments against an administration investigating and prosecuting its opponent. No matter how strong the evidence or how independent Mr. Biden’s attorney general, it will inevitably look to half the country like a political hit job. Perhaps that shouldn’t matter, but from a practical standpoint it’s hard to convince Americans that the Justice Department is not politicized when it’s prosecuting the preceding administration.Then there’s the issue of triage. The moment Mr. Biden takes office he will be saddled with a staggering pileup of emergencies demanding his immediate attention: a pandemic killing thousands of Americans daily; a crippled economy, mass unemployment and miles-long food lines; a worsening climate crisis; and the growing threat of right-wing terrorism and racist violence. Then there was this week’s revelation that the Russian government is behind a huge, monthslong cyberattack on dozens of federal agencies and companies, posing what officials called a “grave risk” to the federal government.Despite the challenges, the nation has to move forward.Many of the most needed reforms fall into the same category as those that were adopted in the aftermath of Watergate: reducing the power of the presidency and re-empowering institutions, like Congress, that are supposed to serve as checks on an imperious executive. Those reforms managed to hold the line for a while, but they turned out to be ineffective at reining in a president with Mr. Trump’s sheer tenacity and disregard for the rule of law. While Mr. Trump failed to fully exploit their weaknesses, a more devious and competent demagogue would be much more likely to succeed.Corruption and abuse of power are the most urgent issues in need of addressing.Four years into Mr. Trump’s presidency and nearly five years since he promised to release his full tax returns, the American people still don’t know how much his personal financial interests and entanglements are intertwined with his administration’s domestic- and foreign-policy decisions. He has an affection for strongmen, but is his solicitousness toward leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman a result of something more mercenary? New laws compelling all presidential candidates to release at least 10 years of their tax returns, as well as a comprehensive list of any possible conflicts of interest, financial and otherwise, should be an obvious step toward reform. Legislation should also bar presidents from being involved in overseeing any business while serving in office.These reforms would need to apply throughout the executive branch. As the nation has seen, Mr. Trump’s administration has been awash from the start in self-dealing, ethical investigations and scandals. From cabinet secretaries to agency heads, the list is long, and likely incomplete.The second major area for reform involves presidential abuse of power, which includes everything from violations of the Hatch Act to the destruction of presidential records. The larger concern is the politicization of law enforcement. Mr. Trump was open in his belief that the Justice Department should do his bidding. He pressured his attorneys general, from Jeff Sessions through William Barr, to protect him and his allies and prosecute his perceived enemies. Sometimes they consented. Other times they resisted. But if law enforcement is to operate fairly and effectively, the American people have to see it as independent from politics.Mr. Trump has also abused his power by pardoning friends and associates who have been convicted of serious crimes. More recently he has floated granting pre-emptive pardons to family members and even himself, which may be unconstitutional. Mr. Trump isn’t the first to test the pardon power’s limits, but he has politicized and personalized it to an unparalleled degree. Since the power is essentially absolute, any meaningful change to it would require a constitutional amendment.As for the other reforms, some can be accomplished through executive orders, more stringent regulations or internal agency memos. But the most lasting will have to be enacted through federal laws, like the Protecting Our Democracy Act, a bill Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced in September. The legislation includes many measures that Republicans have supported in the past. Among other things, it would prohibit self-pardons, give Congress more power to enforce subpoenas, reduce the chance of politically motivated prosecutions by requiring more transparency from the Justice Department and provide more protection for inspectors general and whistle-blowers.The problem with passing laws is that you need both houses of Congress, and to date many Republican lawmakers have showed little to no interest in addressing these sorts of abuses. Most of them still refuse to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory. Perhaps once they do, the prospect of similar abuses by a Democratic president might give them the incentive they need to get on board with reforms.In the absence of any cooperation from the Senate, Mr. Biden could establish a bipartisan executive commission. Its primary task would be to tell the story of what happened and to propose remedies. It would need to have the power to compel the production of both witnesses and documents, and the mandate to produce as complete and accurate a record as possible of the violations of laws and norms by the Trump administration.It’s been four years since Americans lived under a president who placed the country’s well-being and security above his own personal interests. Simply by occupying the Oval Office, Mr. Biden can begin to repair the damage caused by his predecessor. With every act he takes, he will send an important message to the American people, and the world, about what a president should do — and, perhaps more important, what a president should not do, even if he technically has the power to do it.That’s why Mr. Biden’s victory is significant, apart from any specific reforms. “So much of whether these reforms will be successful and whether the prestige of the presidency and the dignity of the presidency will be respected is not going to depend on legal reform,” said Jack Goldsmith, a lawyer in the George W. Bush administration who co-wrote a book about reconstructing the presidency after Mr. Trump. “It’s going to depend on the identity of the person who’s the president. So not everything can be done by law. Some things need to be done by elections.”The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Trump Discussed Naming Sidney Powell as Special Counsel on Election Fraud

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      Electoral College Results

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      Biden Cabinet Leans Centrist, Leaving Some Liberals Frustrated

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Presidential TransitionFriday’s UpdatesElectoral College ResultsBiden’s CabinetInaugural DonationsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBiden Cabinet Leans Centrist, Leaving Some Liberals FrustratedStill a work in progress, the president-elect’s personnel choices are more pragmatic and familiar than ideological. It’s what he campaigned on, but the left had hoped for more.President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s initial personnel choices suggest a pragmatic approach to governing and a reliance on familiar faces.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York TimesMichael D. Shear and Dec. 19, 2020Updated 7:46 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — His economic and environment teams are a little left of center. His foreign policy picks fall squarely in the Democratic Party’s mainstream. His top White House aides are Washington veterans.Taken together, the picture that emerges from President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s initial wave of personnel choices is a familiar, pragmatic and largely centrist one.That fits with the implicit deal that the former vice president and longtime senator offered Democrats during the 2020 primaries — that he was neither as progressive as Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, nor a product of Wall Street like Michael Bloomberg, the Republican-turned-Democrat who failed in his last-minute attempt to offer a moderate alternative to Mr. Biden.Still a work in progress, Mr. Biden’s cabinet is designed to be an extension of his own ideology, rooted in long-held Democratic Party principles but with a greater focus on the plight of working-class Americans, a new sense of urgency about climate change and a deeper empathy about the issues of racial justice that he has said persuaded him to run for the presidency a third time.His nominees are a reflection of the image that his campaign conveyed and that powered his defeat of President Trump. They are diverse in ways that appeal to liberals, young voters and people of color. And they are moderate like the swing voters who helped him win in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.“That’s him,” said Bill Daley, who served as White House chief of staff for President Barack Obama. “That’s his whole campaign.”For his cabinet, Mr. Obama assembled outsize personalities like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Robert M. Gates, the defense secretary who was a holdover from the George W. Bush administration.Mr. Biden’s cabinet so far has no one likely to draw the same kind of high-octane attention. His choices have decades of quiet, behind-the-scenes policymaking experience, matching Mr. Biden’s pledge to return basic competence to the government after four years of Mr. Trump’s chaotic administration.His nominees and choice of top White House aides make only a nod to the progressive movement in the Democratic Party that helped Mr. Biden win the election. That has left some of the party’s liberals frustrated by what they say is the creation of a new administration dominated by old thinking, unprepared to confront the post-Trumpian world of deeper racial and economic inequities and more entrenched Republican resistance.There is no one yet in Mr. Biden’s cabinet carrying the torch for the policies that he campaigned against during the primaries: free college for everyone, a costly Green New Deal, an anti-Wall Street agenda, universal health care and steep increases in the minimum wage.The danger, said Faiz Shakir, who managed Mr. Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, is that Mr. Biden does not pay sufficient attention to the struggle of working-class people, whose fortunes have declined under the economic policies of presidents from both parties. He said a return to the Democratic status quo, before Mr. Trump’s presidency, was not enough.“One of the concerns is that you want to pierce the bubble of how our Democratic elites have thought about politics and policymaking and urge them to go bolder,” Mr. Shakir said. “And now we’re relying on a lot of people’s instincts who’ve been honed, quite frankly, during a different era of politics.”Varshini Prakash, the executive director and a founder of the Sunrise Movement, a liberal group focused on climate change, praised Mr. Biden’s environmental picks as a welcome “departure from the leave-it-to-the-markets way of thinking that defined the early 2000s.”But she said she hoped Mr. Biden would do more to promote younger people whose experience is not defined by previous generations.“It is still an older, whiter, male-er group in general,” she said. “We are never going to develop the leadership we need for decades to come if we keep appointing people who are in their 60s and 70s who have served in multiple administrations already.”It can be difficult to divine the precise policy direction of an administration from the selection of a dozen cabinet members. Whatever the views of the individual secretaries, their mandates once in office will now be defined by the new president’s promises and policies.Xavier Becerra, Mr. Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has previously embraced “Medicare for All” proposals. Now he will be called on to support the president-elect’s plan for improving Obamacare.But Mr. Biden has already signaled a more populist bent than Mr. Obama did. He talks about strengthening unions and creating working-class jobs with significant spending increases to build new roads, bridges and highways and repair the old ones. On Saturday, he said he would make climate change a focus of the economic recovery from the coronavirus, calling for the construction of 1.5 million energy-efficient homes and 500,000 new electric-vehicle charging stations, and for the creation of a “civilian climate corps” to carry out projects. The Presidential TransitionLatest UpdatesUpdated Dec. 18, 2020, 2:59 p.m. ETBiden officials say they didn’t agree to a ‘holiday pause’ in Defense meetings, pushing back against Pentagon officials.Pence, Pelosi and McConnell receive a coronavirus vaccine. Biden is set to get an injection on Monday.Lara Trump served on the board of a company through which the Trump political operation spent more than $700 million.His economic advisers believe in helping marginalized workers, expanding labor rights, addressing income inequality and bringing an end to gender and racial discrimination in the workplace.And like previous presidents, Mr. Biden has already signaled that he wants to firmly control policymaking from inside the White House, installing close confidants and people with years of experience who will work down the hall from the Oval Office.Ron Klain, a veteran Democratic operative, will be Mr. Biden’s chief of staff.Credit…Nicholas Kamm/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe fingerprints of Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff and a longtime aide to Mr. Biden, are already evident in the selection of White House advisers with the kind of stature and experience to face off with the cabinet secretaries during debates over complex and difficult issues.Susan Rice, who was Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, will oversee domestic policy for Mr. Biden, who chose her not for her substantive expertise, but because of her ability to wrangle competing interests in a sprawling and often unruly government bureaucracy.Ray LaHood, a Republican who served as transportation secretary for Mr. Obama, said that dynamic was also evident in Mr. Biden’s decision to put John Kerry, the former secretary of state, and Gina McCarthy, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency, in charge of climate policy in the White House.“Every big major legislative or other issue was run out of the White House,” Mr. LaHood said, recalling the Obama White House. And, he predicted, it will be the same in the Biden administration. Some important pieces of the cabinet puzzle have yet to fall into place.Mr. Biden has not chosen an attorney general to oversee the Justice Department, which will be at the center of the president-elect’s promise to expand voting rights, overhaul law enforcement and enforce racial justice in the nation’s court system.Nominees for the Labor, Education and Commerce Departments also have yet to be announced, leaving it unclear exactly how Mr. Biden intends to carry out his vision for more investment in schools, safer and more prosperous jobs, and an improved economic environment for business.But some themes are emerging.One of Mr. Biden’s most urgent challenges as president will be to quickly turn around an economy wracked by the coronavirus pandemic, with millions of people out of work and businesses struggling to survive.To do that, the president-elect will lean on an economic team that tilts to the left of their predecessors in the Obama administration.Cecilia Rouse, his pick to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, is expected to focus on the forces that hold people back in the economy and the challenges that workers face, especially in the so-called gig economy.Janet Yellen, his choice to be Treasury secretary, is a labor economist who has long championed efforts to raise wages. Heather Boushey, named to be a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, is a proponent of a higher minimum wage and has fought for providing up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to workers.There is not a deficit hawk among Mr. Biden’s nominees, but neither are there members of the progressive left championed by Mr. Sanders or Ms. Warren. Any member of Mr. Biden’s team might have worked for Hillary Clinton, had she won the presidency four years ago.On foreign policy, Mr. Biden has turned to a group of people with whom he has worked closely, a largely nonideological group who appear willing to execute his vision rather than pursue agendas of their own.“It’s like his Senate staff,” said Leon E. Panetta, a former Clinton White House chief of staff and C.I.A. director and defense secretary in the Obama administration. “I don’t think you can say that they come with a set of ideological ideals. They come ready to serve the president, and people need to understand that Joe Biden to a large extent is going to call the shots here.”Mr. Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, first worked for Mr. Biden as a Senate committee staff member in the 1990s and more than anyone else is an extension of his brain on foreign policy. In public remarks of his own, Mr. Blinken has generally reflected Mr. Biden’s views, including a belief in the value of American global leadership, alliances and military strength.Mr. Biden’s choices for director of national intelligence, national security adviser and defense secretary are all seen as skillful managers and bureaucratic operators; none are associated with strong political views or distinct policy agendas. “It’s a solid, sensible, centrist foreign policy team that’s likely to work well together and be well aligned to the president’s priorities,” said Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.Troops in Fort Drum, N.Y., this month after returning from Afghanistan.Credit…John Moore/Getty ImagesEarly in his presidency, as he weighed his Afghanistan strategy, Mr. Obama felt pressure for a substantial troop increase from Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Gates. Mr. Biden is unlikely to face such tensions within his own team.Volunteers at the Centre Street Food Pantry in Newton Center, Mass., near Boston, prepared bags of groceries for families in need. The food bank has fed people at twice its usual volume because of the pandemic.Credit…Cody O’Loughlin for The New York TimesMr. Biden has said that addressing the threat from climate change is one of his top four priorities, along with confronting the Covid-19 pandemic, helping the economy to recover and moving toward racial justice in the United States. He is likely to provide another broad overview of his goals in his Inaugural Address and offer more detail in his first address to Congress shortly after taking office.But achieving the kind of sweeping change he has promised will be more difficult if Democrats fail to win two Senate runoffs in Georgia early next month. Republicans only have to win one of the two races to maintain control of the Senate and the power to block much of Mr. Biden’s agenda.And even if Democrats win, the party’s margins in both the Senate and the House will be razor thin, making it far less likely that Congress will embrace bold and costly policy proposals. Tom Ridge, a former Republican governor in Pennsylvania who served as secretary of Homeland Security for President George W. Bush, said many of the solutions will come from the departments led by Mr. Biden’s cabinet.“I don’t know of a modern president who, on the date of being sworn in, was confronted with the range of challenges that he and this administration confront the moment he takes office,” Mr. Ridge said. “These are tough, challenging problems. At this point in time, it’s good to have experienced hands.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Trump Claims Credit for Vaccines. Some of His Backers Don’t Want to Take Them.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Covid-19 VaccinesVaccine QuestionsDoses Per StateHow the Moderna Vaccine WorksWhy You’ll Still Need a MaskPost-Vaccine OutlookAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTrump Claims Credit for Vaccines. Some of His Backers Don’t Want to Take Them.A deep distrust of the government is fueling vaccine hesitancy among Republicans, who are more likely than Democrats to resist being inoculated against Covid-19.A pharmacist preparing a dose of the Pfizer vaccine for the coronavirus on Wednesday. The “anti-vaxxer movement” is not new, and it typically cuts across political parties. But partisanship plays a major role in how people view the coronavirus vaccine.Credit…Michael A. McCoy for The New York TimesDec. 18, 2020Updated 9:43 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — Elizabeth Graves, an ardent supporter of President Trump, is not opposed to vaccines. She said she had taken flu shots and pneumonia shots and, having just turned 50, was interested in being vaccinated against shingles.But Ms. Graves, a legal transcriptionist in Starkville, Miss., said she would not be taking a coronavirus vaccine — and the sight of Vice President Mike Pence rolling up his sleeve to get vaccinated on live television on Friday, she added, would not change her mind.Lawrence Palmer, 51, a field service engineer in Boiling Springs, Pa., and Brandon Lofgren, 25, who works in his family’s trucking and construction business in rural Wisconsin, said they felt the same way. All are fans of Mr. Trump, and echoed Ms. Graves, who said she was “suspicious” of government and that Mr. Pence’s vaccination “doesn’t mean a thing to me.”It is a paradox of the pandemic: Helping speed the development of a coronavirus vaccine may be one of Mr. Trump’s proudest accomplishments, but at least in the early stages of the vaccine rollout, there is evidence that a substantial number of his supporters say they do not want to get it.Until the past week, their objections were largely hypothetical. But with a second vaccine about to become available in the United States — the Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized emergency use of the vaccine developed by Moderna, a week after the version developed by Pfizer and BioNTech won the same approval — more people will confront the choice of getting inoculated or not. The authorization will clear the way for the shipment of 5.9 million doses over the weekend and tens of millions more in coming months, greatly expanding the reach of the vaccination campaign as the nation grapples with the uncontrolled spread of the disease.For the most part, public opinion has been swinging in favor of vaccination. Seventy-one percent of Americans are willing to be vaccinated, up from 63 percent in September, according to a survey released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation.Still, the survey found that Republicans were the most likely to be hesitant, with 42 percent saying they would probably not or definitely not be vaccinated, as compared with 12 percent of Democrats.Experts say that vaccine hesitancy may diminish over time if people see friends and relatives getting vaccinated without incident. Sheri Simms, 62, a retired businesswoman in Northeast Texas who describes herself as a “moderate conservative” supporter of the president, said that while she did not intend to get vaccinated now, that could change.“As more information comes out, and things appear to work better, then I will weigh the risks of the vaccine against the risk of the coronavirus and make a judgment,” she said.The “anti-vaxxer movement” is not new, and it typically cuts across political parties. But the coronavirus vaccine, developed against the backdrop of a bitterly fought presidential election and championed by an especially polarizing figure in Mr. Trump, has become especially associated with partisanship.During the campaign, while Mr. Trump was promising a vaccine by Election Day, some Democrats expressed concern about whether safety would be sacrificed in the rush to deliver a vaccine in time to help the president at the polls.Political leaders in both parties worked on Friday to dispel concerns about the vaccine.Mr. Pence, who took the Pfizer vaccine on Friday in a ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, was not the only prominent public official to get vaccinated. On Capitol Hill, congressional leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, were also inoculated against Covid-19. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill Biden, are to be vaccinated on Monday..css-fk3g7a{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.125rem;color:#121212 !important;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-fk3g7a{font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;}}.css-1sjr751{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}.css-1sjr751 a:hover{border-bottom:1px solid #dcdcdc;}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-zs9392{margin:10px auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-zs9392{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-zs9392{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.75rem;margin-bottom:20px;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-zs9392{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}.css-121grtr{margin:0 auto 10px;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-qmg6q8{background-color:white;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;max-width:600px;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-qmg6q8{padding:0;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto;}.css-qmg6q8 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qmg6q8 em{font-style:italic;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-qmg6q8{margin:40px auto;}}.css-qmg6q8:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}.css-qmg6q8 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ccd9e3;}.css-qmg6q8 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ddd;}.css-qmg6q8 a:hover{border-bottom:none;}.css-qmg6q8[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-qmg6q8[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-qmg6q8[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-qmg6q8[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-11uwurf{border:1px solid #e2e2e2;padding:15px;border-radius:0;margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-11uwurf{padding:20px;}}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-11uwurf{border-top:1px solid #121212;border-bottom:none;}Covid-19 Vaccines ›Answers to Your Vaccine QuestionsWith distribution of a coronavirus vaccine beginning in the U.S., here are answers to some questions you may be wondering about:If I live in the U.S., when can I get the vaccine? While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most will likely put medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is getting made, this article will help.When can I return to normal life after being vaccinated? Life will return to normal only when society as a whole gains enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries authorize a vaccine, they’ll only be able to vaccinate a few percent of their citizens at most in the first couple months. The unvaccinated majority will still remain vulnerable to getting infected. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines are showing robust protection against becoming sick. But it’s also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they’re infected because they experience only mild symptoms or none at all. Scientists don’t yet know if the vaccines also block the transmission of the coronavirus. So for the time being, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds, and so on. Once enough people get vaccinated, it will become very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve that goal, life might start approaching something like normal by the fall 2021.If I’ve been vaccinated, do I still need to wear a mask? Yes, but not forever. Here’s why. The coronavirus vaccines are injected deep into the muscles and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies. This appears to be enough protection to keep the vaccinated person from getting ill. But what’s not clear is whether it’s possible for the virus to bloom in the nose — and be sneezed or breathed out to infect others — even as antibodies elsewhere in the body have mobilized to prevent the vaccinated person from getting sick. The vaccine clinical trials were designed to determine whether vaccinated people are protected from illness — not to find out whether they could still spread the coronavirus. Based on studies of flu vaccine and even patients infected with Covid-19, researchers have reason to be hopeful that vaccinated people won’t spread the virus, but more research is needed. In the meantime, everyone — even vaccinated people — will need to think of themselves as possible silent spreaders and keep wearing a mask. Read more here.Will it hurt? What are the side effects? The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered as a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection into your arm won’t feel different than any other vaccine, but the rate of short-lived side effects does appear higher than a flu shot. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported any serious health problems. The side effects, which can resemble the symptoms of Covid-19, last about a day and appear more likely after the second dose. Early reports from vaccine trials suggest some people might need to take a day off from work because they feel lousy after receiving the second dose. In the Pfizer study, about half developed fatigue. Other side effects occurred in at least 25 to 33 percent of patients, sometimes more, including headaches, chills and muscle pain. While these experiences aren’t pleasant, they are a good sign that your own immune system is mounting a potent response to the vaccine that will provide long-lasting immunity.Will mRNA vaccines change my genes? No. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use a genetic molecule to prime the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse to a cell, allowing the molecule to slip in. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. At any moment, each of our cells may contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they produce in order to make proteins of their own. Once those proteins are made, our cells then shred the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules our cells make can only survive a matter of minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzymes a bit longer, so that the cells can make extra virus proteins and prompt a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only last for a few days at most before they are destroyed.In any other era, Mr. Pence’s vaccination, administered by a technician from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., in images beamed across the country, would have been a moment to bring the nation together. He took the shot in front of a giant blue poster declaring in white block letters: “SAFE and EFFECTIVE.”His wife, Karen Pence, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams were also vaccinated.Vice President Mike Pence received the Pfizer vaccine on Friday in a ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times“I didn’t feel a thing — well done,” the vice president said afterward, adding that he wanted to “assure the American people that while we cut red tape, we cut no corners.”But Mr. Trump was notably absent. One reason for the partisan divide over vaccination, experts said, is the president himself. His repeated denigration of scientists and insistence that the pandemic is not a threat, they said, have contributed to a sense among his followers that the vaccine is either not safe or not worth taking.“I just don’t feel there’s been enough research on it. I think it was sped up too fast,” said Mark Davis, 42, a disabled worker in Michigan. “You don’t even really know the side effects, what’s in it.”Mr. Lofgren agreed. “The jury’s out on whether it’s going to work,” he said, despite studies showing that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were more than 94 percent effective.Experts say that “herd immunity” — the point at which so many people are immune that the spread of a virus is diminished — can be achieved when roughly 75 percent of the population is vaccinated. While the Trump administration is rolling out a public relations campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated, the reluctance among even a minority of Republicans is deeply troubling to public health experts.Mr. Trump has been quick to claim credit for the manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine. “Distribution to start immediately,” he said Friday on Twitter, a day after an F.D.A. expert advisory panel recommended approval of Moderna’s vaccine.Although the president has recovered from Covid-19, he remains vulnerable to reinfection. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease scientist, has recommended that Mr. Trump be vaccinated. But he has given no indication that he will actually do so, and he has said little, if anything, to encourage Americans to get vaccinated.“We need him taking a proactive role,” said Matthew Motta, a political scientist at Oklahoma State University who studies politics and vaccine views, adding, “The single best person to convince you to change your mind about something is somebody who agrees with you, somebody who you trust on other issues.”Mr. Trump’s own flirtations with vaccine skepticism are well known. He repeated the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism as far back as 2007, when he said he had slowed his son Barron’s vaccination schedule, and as recently as 2015 while first running for president.“Trump helped re-energize the anti-vaccine movement,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an expert on vaccines, “and now he wants to pivot and make this his greatest accomplishment.”Helping speed the development of a coronavirus vaccine may be one of President Trump’s proudest accomplishments, but at least in the early stages of the vaccine rollout, there is evidence that a substantial number of his supporters say they do not want to get it.Credit…Samuel Corum for The New York TimesSome conservative news media outlets are reinforcing the skepticism, tapping into suspicion of government by raising questions about whether officials are leveling with the public about the risks of the vaccines.Tucker Carlson, the Fox News commentator, railed on Thursday against the “corporate image campaign” promoting vaccination, suggesting incorrectly that isolated instances of allergic reactions to the vaccine were being censored.In interviews, Trump supporters said they felt the pandemic had been blown out of proportion. Mr. Lofgren said several of his co-workers had recovered from Covid-19, “with really no more than just cold symptoms.” Mr. Palmer said that if he “had an issue with breathing or a heart issue or a lung issue,” he might consider it, but does not want to take a chance.Conspiracy theories — including the notion that the virus was created by the Chinese and Democrats to hurt Mr. Trump politically, or that the vaccine contains a microchip allowing the government to track people — cropped up in several conversations. Ms. Graves, who has diabetes, a risk factor for Covid-19, and has a master’s degree in library science, said such thoughts were creating doubts in the back of her mind.“There’s no, quote, evidence that there’s a microchip or that here’s something nefarious about the whole thing,” she said. “But I have a gut check about all of it, and the government pushing it, and they’re finding all these popular people to take the vaccine. And it’s weird, like why are we pushing it so hard?”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      The World Is Full of Challenges. Here’s How Biden Can Meet Them.

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storyOpinionSupported byContinue reading the main storyThe World Is Full of Challenges. Here’s How Biden Can Meet Them.The incoming administration needs to update American policy to meet the challenges of the 21st century.Mr. Gates served as secretary of defense for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2006 to 2011.Dec. 18, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ETCredit…Erin Schaff/The New York TimesPresident-elect Joe Biden appears to be framing his foreign policy around three themes: re-engaging with America’s friends and allies, renewing our participation in international organizations and relying more heavily on nonmilitary instruments of power. Considering the challenges posed by China and other countries, as well as transnational threats that range from pandemics to climate change, these are, in my view, the correct priorities. (Though, of course, unparalleled military power must remain the backdrop for America’s relations with the world.)In each case, however, a return to the pre-Trump status quo will be inadequate to the task. In each, it is necessary to reform, revitalize and restructure the American approach.Our NATO allies, as well as Japan, South Korea and others, will welcome America’s reaffirmation of its security commitments and its switch to respectful dialogue after the confrontational Trump years. But the new administration ought to insist on our allies doing more on several fronts. President Trump’s pressure on them to spend more on defense was a continuation of a theme across multiple presidencies. That pressure must continue.But it’s not just on military spending that the new administration needs to take a tough stand with allies. Germany must be held to account not just for its pathetic level of military spending, but also for trading the economic and security interests of Poland and Ukraine for the economic benefits of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline running from Russia to Germany.Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system against repeated American warnings must have costs. (Recently imposed sanctions are a good start.) And Ankara must also be held to account for its actions in Libya, the eastern Mediterranean and Syria that contravene the interests of other NATO allies and complicate efforts to achieve peace. Actions by member states contrary to the interests of other allies ought not be ignored.The United States needs to take the lead in NATO, an “alliance of democracies,” to devise consequences for member states — such as Turkey, Hungary and, increasingly, Poland — that move toward (or have fully embraced) authoritarianism. There is no provision in the NATO Charter for removing a member state, but creative diplomacy is possible, including suspension or other punitive steps.Mr. Biden’s embrace of the international organizations that Mr. Trump has spurned must be accompanied by an agenda for their improvement. Despite their many problems, these organizations serve useful purposes and can be effective conduits for American influence around the world.In the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union had an elaborate, long-range strategy for seeding its officials throughout the United Nations and associated institutions. China seems to be pursuing a similar strategy today. When we walk away from the World Health Organization and other such organizations, we provide the Chinese with opportunities to dominate them and use them for their own purposes.The new administration must insist on the far-reaching organizational reform of international organizations (such as the W.H.O.), using all the diplomatic and economic leverage we can muster to make effective reform actually happen. Simply showing up again is not good enough.Closer to home, as the new administration commits to far greater reliance on nonmilitary tools like conventional diplomacy, development assistance and public diplomacy to protect America’s interests and advance our objectives, it needs to recognize that those tools overall are in serious need of investment and updating. Our national security apparatus — designed in 1947 — needs to be restructured for the 21st century.The multidimensional competition with China and transnational challenges require the formal involvement of agencies previously not considered part of the national security apparatus and new approaches to achieving true “whole of government” American strategies and operations.The State Department, our principal nondefense instrument of power, is in dire need of reform, as many senior active and retired foreign service officers attest. In return for meaningful structural and cultural change, the State Department should get the significant additional resources it needs.In recent years, our international economic tools have centered mainly on punitive measures, such as sanctions and tariffs. We need to be more creative in finding positive economic inducements to persuade other countries to act — or not act — in accordance with our interests. No other country comes even close to the United States in providing humanitarian assistance after disasters, but nearly all other major assistance successes in recent years — such as George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief or the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation — were put in place outside the normal bureaucratic structure or processes.While the United States cannot compete directly with China’s Belt and Road projects and development assistance, we should look for ways to leverage the power of our private sector. American corporations can partner with the United States government in countries around the world that offer both sound investment prospects and opportunities to advance American interests. The creation in 2018 of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation was a good start. President Barack Obama’s 2013 “Power Africa” initiative, which was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress and aimed to bring universal electricity access to sub-Saharan Africa, is an example of successful partnering between the private sector and the government.Finally, America’s strategic communications — our ability to spread our message and influence governments and peoples — are pitifully inadequate and outdated.In the early 2000s, President Hu Jintao of China committed some $7 billion to vastly expand China’s international media and influence capabilities. By way of contrast, in 1998, Congress abolished the U.S. Information Agency; subsequently, “public diplomacy” was tucked into a corner of the State Department in an organization that today doesn’t even report directly to the secretary of state.There is no coordination of messaging across the government, and efforts to make better use of social media and other new technologies have been laggard and disjointed. Surely, the country that invented marketing, public relations and the internet can figure out how to recapture primacy in strategic communications.Misgivings linger abroad about whether American re-engagement (and reliability) will last beyond this new administration — and about the new president’s views on the use of military power. That said, there is considerable relief among most of our allies and friends that Mr. Biden has won the election.This provides the new president with considerable leverage to revitalize and strengthen alliances and international institutions and to show at home that doing so advances American interests around the world and the well-being of our own citizens. This would be an enduring legacy for the Biden administration.Robert M. Gates served as Secretary of Defense for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2006 to 2011.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More