Every four years, Washington D.C. is inundated with numerous policy papers for the next president, many of which nobody in town ever really bothers to read. Especially after Election Day, pundits all over the world start writing about what can be expected from a new U.S. administration. The aftermath of the 2020 contest is no exception.
Although a number of Japanese Trumpists took to the street in protest claiming that U.S. President Donald Trump had won the election, I found the great majority of people in Tokyo remained ambivalent about a new Joe Biden administration. By the same token, I found similar ambivalence in many other capitals around the world.
Having recently read some of those papers pondering on what to expect from the U.S., I felt a little nervous. That is because what Paris, Berlin, Ankara, Jerusalem, Riyadh, Delhi and Seoul are wishing for and expect from a new U.S. president are different — with all having their own agendas. The following are some of my takeaways: