u/Puzzleheaded-Bag2212

Comparison to how things are nowadays, I can't seem to think that any US president since JFK has had better foreign policy than Joe Biden. Maybe Bush Sr, but even he started the ill-fated defense pact with the Saudis and failed to protect Kurdish and Shia minorities from getting massacred or disappeared by Saddam just days after the Gulf War ended after encouraging them to revolt, leading to 12 years of deadly sanctions and nearly 200,000 civilian deaths.

Biden's biggest foreign policy mistakes were 1. giving unconditional aid to Israel despite the horrendous situation in Gaza, refusing to approve a UN Security Council Resolution to move forward full membership for Palestine, and failing to stop the offensive into the Rafah refugee camp; 2. abruptly removing troops from Kabul behind schedule after saying they would withdraw, despite terrorists attacking civilians, leaving millions of dollars worth of military equipment the Taliban would use; and 3. "opening the border" which encouraged further caravans although that seems to be more of a result of post-COVID than anything.

Compared to all US presidents since JFK, these foreign policy are relatively minor. Carter, Ford and Clinton probably are the only other ones with relatively inoffensive foreign policy drawbacks, yet they lack the achievements that Biden had. Even with Gaza, Biden urged Israel to decrease civilian casualties in Gaza and gave more aid to Palestinians than any other US president. Criticizing Biden for not rejoining the 2015 JCPOA or not ending the war in Ukraine without major concessions to Russia are disingenuous as Trump made Iran relations untrustworthy by ending the JCPOA and Ukraine does not want to make any concessions to Russia.

His major foreign policy wins, in order: 1. saving Ukraine from complete Russian destruction via $70 billion in military aid while Europe was delayed in protecting them; 2. rejoining the Paris accords while making renewable energy an international economic priority via the IRA and CHIPS Act which led to countries trying to match the US's subsidies on renewable energy and challenging China/Taiwan on minerals and semiconductor manufacturing 3. strengthened NATO by recommitting the US in the face of Russian aggression after the America First phase.

In response to the CHIPS and IRA, the European Commission proposed the Net Zero Industry Act as part of the European Green Deal to counter U.S. policies. This act aimed to boost the EU's green technology sector and reduce reliance on U.S. imports by promoting domestic production and innovation within Europe.

Biden was committed to American tradition and was not a realist in foreign policy, but one who emphasized both human rights and good relations with our allies, not just in NATO but in the far east as well. The one major blotch against this is his overcommitment to Israel which allowed possible future terrorists in Gaza to be angered by US weapons bombarding their civilian homes.

In the face of Russian aggression, Biden wisely judged that directly fighting Russia over Ukraine would be extremely dangerous and adopted a cautious approach to his support for Kyiv. American monetary aid kept the Ukrainian government afloat, and USAID relief included medical kits, food, and shelter. Biden has been criticized since by those who believe that he could have provided more weapons to Ukraine, more quickly, and still avoided war with Russia. But those criticisms are baseless: a rapid U.S. escalation would almost certainly have provoked a broader war. Aversion to war while protecting our allies is something I appreciate from Biden and he was right for protecting Ukraine.

Biden also had an impossible situation with Afghanistan. If the United States continued to battle the Taliban, it would only have cost the nation more in blood and treasure and for the same desultory result. Biden was given an impossible situation from Trump who made the deal after losing the 2020 election knowing it would look badly on the next president. Anyone saying Trump doesn't deserve blame is not understanding the issue, but both presidents ultimately made the right call to withdraw.

With China, his administration stood up for Taiwan and restricted China’s access to vital U.S. technology while bolstering U.S. alliances and military forces across Asia. It relaunched diplomacy with Beijing, even after Beijing’s ham-fisted operation to spy on America from balloons in 2023 intensified domestic headwinds. The Marines started training in the South Pacific for island-to-island combat after China threatened Taiwan.

Some other things:

The United States–Pacific Island Country Summit was a meeting hosted by Joe Biden with Pacific Island leaders held on September 28–29, 2022. The Pacific leaders endorsed the declaration of the United States–Pacific partnership that commits the United States and the Pacific Island countries to work together "in the face of a worsening climate crisis and an increasingly complex geopolitical environment.

Biden extended the US-Russia New START nuclear arms control treaty as promised. He also followed through on hosting a Global Summit for Democracy

On the day Biden took office, the new administration adopted tighter controls on drone strikes and special forces raids in places where there are few U.S. troops, including Libya and Yemen. The policy halted the Trump-era policy that gave U.S. military officials more discretion to launch counterterrorism attacks without White House oversight.

Biden killed the leader of al-Qaeda via drone strike.

Biden increased humanitarian aid to Venezuela while rightly calling Maduro a dictator.

Biden prioritized climate change in diplomacy with South American countries.

Biden returned the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council (which the Trump administration withdrew from in 2018.

With ISIS nearly defeated there, Biden ended the combat mission to Iraq in his first year.

Biden rapidly decreased the use of drone strikes from Trump and undid Trump's suspension of the drone strike report of civilian casualties.

Biden rejoined the WHO and sent millions of vaccines to other countries, helping end the COVID pandemic.

Biden eased Trump's trade restrictions on Japan and the EU, but maintained them with China.

Biden negotiated the return of nearly all the hostages taken by Hamas back to Israel.

So out of all post-JFK presidents, did Biden had the best foreign policy? His most major mistakes were possibly not as bad as other presidents' and were not even entirely his fault (Trump for Afghanistan, post-COVID for immigration surge, the Abraham Accords for October 7). Biden was a non-interventionist, only starting 1 war to protect shipping in the Red Sea which was justified even if immoral. I already mentioned why Bush Sr had flawed Middle East policy which makes Biden slightly better. LBJ, Trump, Nixon and W Bush had the worst foreign policy of post-1963 presidents. Ford doesn't have enough accomplishments, and while Carter was better and had Camp David, he failed to respond to Iranian aggression and continued aiding Suharto's genocide of East Timor which Ford started. Clinton, Obama, and Reagan were above-average in foreign policy, but Obama's bungle with Libya and Crimea is worse than Biden's in the long-term and he started aiding a the Saudi offensive in Yemen. Clinton was very lucky to not have to deal with the USSR and minimal terrorism, but failed to respond to Rwanda and continued deadly sanctions on Iraq. Reagan allowed Saddam to use chemical weapons while aiding death squads in Central America, but denuclearization is of course a huge achievement.

besides Teddy, Obama, and Nixon

previous posts in this series:

Reagan won for 5th-worst economic policy. Grant won for fifth-most progressive; and Truman won for 5th-best foreign policy and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative. Wilson won 5th-best domestic policy; and Skidmark Bush won for 5th-worst domestic policy; and Ford won 4th-least intelligent and Pierce for 5th, replacing Dubya and Madison won 5th-worst foreign policy and Cleveland won for 5th unluckiest. Jefferson won for 5th-luckiest. Truman/Lincoln won for 5th-best economic policy. https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/1t7g9i1/who_were_the_most_libertarian_us_presidents_not/ Harding won for 5th-most libertarian and https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/1ta4o9m/who_was_the_most_authoritarian_president_besides/?sort=top Adams won 5th-most authoritarian

My top 4 would be Cleveland, Arthur, Tyler and Coolidge

previous posts in this series:

Reagan won for 5th-worst economic policy. Grant won for fifth-most progressive; and Truman won for 5th-best foreign policy and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative. Wilson won 5th-best domestic policy; and Skidmark Bush won for 5th-worst domestic policy; and Ford won 4th-least intelligent and Pierce for 5th, replacing Dubya and Madison won 5th-worst foreign policy and Cleveland won for 5th unluckiest. Jefferson won for 5th-luckiest. Truman/Lincoln won for 5th-best economic policy.

The following 15 presidents are the ones who did not appear on my list of list of worst economic policy nor my list for 13 best economic policy which I had not posted yet as I am unable to determine the order after my top 6 (FDR, Wilson, Eisenhower, Obama, Taft, TR) but the remaining 7 in chronological order would be Washington, Polk, Lincoln, Truman, Kennedy, LBJ and Clinton).

The best here is Madison. The worst is Monroe.

1. Madison - support for Gallatin's Treasury, promoted limited government and low taxes while supporting Clay's American system helping charter the Second Bank of the United States after the War of 1812 exposed the nation’s weak financial system, but his administration was hurt economically by the war with a large increase in the national debt. Trade disruptions in the first term increased domestic manufacturing.
2. Hayes - return to the gold standard which helped end the Long Depression but did nothing to resolve labor disputes. He opposed the inflationary pumping of silver into the economy
3. Ford - respected the independence of the Fed, lowered taxes, and unsuccessfully tried to lower unemployment and inflation by avoiding a stimulus. Inflation did decrease though from 9.1 to 5.8%. He deregulated the railroad industry and lowered the price of oil.
4. Carter - deregulated industries such as airlines and trucking and appointed Paul Volcker to fight inflation which created a 20-year boom, but his solutions to combat the oil crisis (deregulating domestic petroleum prices to stimulate production and promoting renewable energy in response to the oil crisis) did not have political support. He also expanded the earned income tax credit which helped working-class Americans, strengthened minimum wage enforcement. He strengthened OSHA, created the office of Minority Business Enterprise, and expanded the Head Start program in adding 43,000 families. He signed the the Community Reinvestment Act to protect borrowers from redlining which had discriminated against people for decades at that point, and signed the Monetary Control Act of 1980 (strengthening the Federal Reserve’s control over the money supply, imposing universal reserve requirements, phasing out interest rate caps, and increasing FDIC insurance) and the Fair Debt Collection Act (prohibits third-party debt collectors from using abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices to collect personal, family, or household debts). While he deserves credit for Volcker, unemployment never decreased during his term likely do do his drive for a balanced budget after the 1977 economic tax-relief and infrastructure stimulus did not lower unemployment
5. Grant - supported a hard-money, gold-backed financial system and oversaw rapid industrial growth, though his administration was damaged economically by the Panic of 1873
6. McKinley - raised tariffs and codified the gold standard, presided over strong industrial expansion, though his policies also reinforced corporate power and he disregarded antitrust enforcement
7. Adams - maintained the Hamiltonian system but also instituted a Direct Tax of 1798 to get a balanced budget to fund increased military costs, leading to Fries Rebellion
8. Bush Sr - increased taxes while cutting military spending to reduce the deficit but vetoed essential legislation like the FMLA and economic stimuli that cut taxes for the rich that could have both helped people during the recession of the early 90s. Did fund the internet development though.
9. Cleveland - lowered tariffs and supported the gold standard but economic hardship worsened during his second term and unemployment rose. Might deserve credit for restoring trust to the US dollar but held rigid anti-labor policies (Pullman strike) that prevents him from getting higher.
10. Pierce - reciprocal trade treaty with Canada, began opening of Japan to western trade, lowered tariffs, reclaimed funds from corrupt officials in previous administrations, substantially reduced the national debt by 25%, and surveyed and pseudo-funded the transcontinental railroad. BUT the panic of 1857 began the year he left, and was indirectly a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas.
11. Arthur - Signed a tariff bill that only reduced tariffs by an average of 1.47 percent. Arthur signed the measure into law, and it had no effect on the budget surplus. Nothing else to say
12. Fillmore - funded a few infrastructure projects, signed the Donation Land Claim Act which was a forerunner to the Homestead Act, and created the San Francisco Mint, but besides that no major economic developments
13. Harding - resolved the recession of 1921 through cooperating with the Fed, and labor, banking and industry leaders, reducing the national debt via pre-existing government downsizing, and by Sec Hoover establishing a committee in each state facing high unemployment granting relief stimuli to those local governments, kicking off the roaring 20s. But he had the anti-labor Daughtry injunction, raised tariffs which was terrible for farmers, and Secretary Mellon's laissez-faire ended up being a major cause for the Great Depression.
14. Taylor - no major economic developments
15. Monroe - lackluster response to the Panic of 1819 (despite there being no precedent to help the ordinary people) but did fund a few infrastructure projects

previous post of this series on mediocre foreign policy

I personally think Clinton was the luckiest for being the only president entirely after the fall of the USSR but before 9/11 and during the dot-com boom.

Reagan had a Fed cleaning up stagflation and Gorbachev instituting reforms that helped end the Cold War.

Monroe took office during relatively little political divisions (he had no opposition candidate in 1820) and avoids blame for both the precedent of Indian removal caving to southerners with the Missouri Compromise.

Calvin Coolidge left office a few months before the Great Depression started and a few years before Hitler took power and the Mukden incident .

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Q Adams

previous posts in this series:

Grant won for fifth-most progressive; and Truman won for 5th-best foreign policy and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative. Wilson won 5th-best domestic policy; and Skidmark Bush won for 5th-worst domestic policy; Ford won 4th-least intelligent and Pierce for 5th, replacing Dubya and Madison won 5th-worst foreign policy

Johnson, Bush Jr, Fillmore and Harding

previous posts in this series:

Grant won for fifth-most progressive; Truman won for 5th-best foreign policy and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative. Wilson won 5th-best domestic policy; Skidmark Bush won for 5th-worst domestic policy and Madison won 5th-worst foreign policy

They are Buchanan, Fillmore, Pierce and Johnson.

previous posts in this series:

Grant won for fifth-most progressive; Truman won for 5th-best foreign policy and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative. Wilson won 5th-best domestic policy and Madison won 5th-worst foreign policy

They are LBJ, Lincoln, TR and FDR.

previous posts in this series:

Grant won for fifth-most progressive; Truman won for 5th-best foreign policy and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative. and Who should win 5th-worst foreign policy?

They are McKinley, Pierce, LBJ and Bush Jr.

previous posts in this series:

Grant won for fifth-most progressive; Truman won for 5th-best foreign policy and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative.

They are FDR, Adams, Washington and Monroe

previous posts in this series:

Who should win for fifth-most progressive? and Reagan won for 5th-most conservative

Comment if you disagree these are the most progressive presidents.

I really had to stress "for their time" as people seemed to be confused on the last post where Reagan won for most conservative.