Biden: First speech as US president-elect 6:42
(CNN) -
The free world will have a new leader.
Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election, defeating the conservative populist Donald Trump, could usher in a dramatic shift in America's attitude toward the world.
But does that mean that things will return to normal?
The veteran Democratic politician, who will take office in January 2021, has promised to be a safe pair of hands for the world.
He promises to be friendlier to America's allies than Trump, tougher on autocrats, and better for the planet.
However, the foreign policy landscape can be much more challenging than he remembers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with then-US Vice President Joe Biden (left) in Beijing on December 4, 2013. (Photo by Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)
Much has changed since Biden was last in the White House as former President Obama's vice president.
America's enemies, some incited by Trump, others empowered by him, are more entrenched.
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin;
the president of China, Xi Jinping;
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and others exploited Trump's vanity and cheated on his ego, while reaping their own profits.
Some are now effectively leaders for life.
Biden promises to be different, to reverse some of Trump's most controversial policies, including climate change, and to work more closely with America's allies.
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On China, he says he will continue Trump's hard line on trade, intellectual property theft and coercive business practices by co-opting rather than intimidating allies as Trump did.
On Iran, he promises that Tehran will have a way out of sanctions if it complies with the multinational nuclear deal it oversaw with Obama, but which Trump abandoned.
And with NATO, it is already trying to rebuild trust by promising to instill fear in the Kremlin.
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These are easy people-pleasing actions for the veteran politician, who for many years chaired the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Steeped in the traditions of US global leadership defending democracy and human rights, he was an advocate for US interventions in the Balkans and Darfur, albeit without success;
and promoted nuclear non-proliferation.
But executing his foreign policy vision now won't be easy.
For four years, countries in Europe, the Middle East, and beyond have endured setbacks from US foreign policy.
One day, Trump was pulling US troops out of Syria to the dismay of allies with troops in distress, only to reverse course soon.
Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and countless Islamist fighters benefited from the immediate and long-term confusion of America's damaged reputation as a trusted ally.
Biden now runs the risk of running into a wall of friends in need, all eager to correct perceived mistakes.
After US allies endured a scattered US foreign policy strategy that undermined traditional alliances and threatened world order, managing their expectations of a new presidency will be key.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will also be a new challenge for Biden.
Erdogan is stoking conflicts in Syria, Libya and Armenia, and even escalating tensions with Greece and France, to distract attention from his failings at home.
Trump's desire to disengage from the region had indicated to Erdogan that the United States would do nothing to make the allies restrict him.
Since then, the Turkish leader has damaged the NATO alliance by buying Russian weapons and backing attacks against the interests of America's European and Middle Eastern allies in a way that is unlikely to have been tolerated by previous American administrations.
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The motorized event in which Joe Biden gave his speech took place outside the Chase Center.
Gabriella Demczuk for CNN
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Krista Matheny reacts as she watches Biden's speech from Times Square in New York Andrew Kelly / Reuters
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"Tonight the whole world is looking at America, and I believe that, at our best, America is a beacon to the world," Biden said in his first address to the nation as president-elect.
"We will lead not only by the example of our power, but also by the power of our example."
Andrew Harnik / AP
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People watch Biden's speech from the driveway of a house in New Orleans.
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People in Times Square in New York watch Biden's speech.
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Kamala Harris takes the stage in Wilmington.
Harris is the first black and South Asian woman to be the elected vice president of the United States.
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The number 46 is seen at the Biden event in Wilmington.
Gabriella Demczuk for CNN
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Biden's supporters celebrate their victory outside the Chase Center.
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People fill the street in front of the White House on November 7.
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People celebrate in Philadelphia on November 7.
Pennsylvania was the state that put Biden above the 270 electoral votes needed for the presidency.
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President Trump greets supporters as he leaves the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, on November 7.
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Trump supporters pray alongside an opposing protester in Lansing, Michigan, after Biden was projected as the winner on November 7.
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People celebrate Biden's victory at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington.
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Biden's wife, Jill, tweeted this photo after his win was screened on November 7.
"He will be the president of all our families," he said.
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A man celebrates from a rooftop in New York.
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Biden supporters celebrate in Miami on November 7.
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Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, tweeted this photo of him and Harris that was taken on November 7.
"I am very proud of you," Emhoff wrote.
From Doug Emhoff / Twitter
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Trump supporters gather at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on November 7.
Biden maintains a small lead in the state, which has not voted for a Democratic president since 1992. Chris Aluka Berry / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
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Olivia Cox reacts to Biden's victory at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington.
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Trump plays golf in Sterling, Virginia, on November 7.
The president was on the field when Biden was cast as the winner.
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People celebrate in Times Square in New York on November 7.
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Trump isn't the only one to blame for the power vacuum that made this possible: The outgoing president only accelerated the drift of the Obama-Biden-era disconnect.
Over the next four years, Obama's own isolationist legacy will also haunt Biden's relationships with allies, particularly in the Middle East.
During his own term, Obama dropped America's partners in the Middle East, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, during the "Arab Spring" of 2011, prompting other allies to of the region feared that they too could be abandoned by Washington.
He pulled American troops out of Iraq and was withdrawing them in Afghanistan long before Trump took office.
His inability to punish the Syrian dictator al-Assad for gassing his own people convinced even allies in Europe that the United States was in retreat and led several Gulf states to spend heavily on their own defense.
Trump's toughness on Iran, by contrast, has reaffirmed to Gulf allies that he backed them.
But concerns that his missteps could spark a war have encouraged allies to seek support elsewhere anyway, deepening ties with Moscow and Beijing.
Biden will now have to convince allies that the United States is a stable long-term partner, while juggling the long-term threat posed by China's rise.
In this, Biden is already behind the eight ball.
This year's significant voter turnout for Trump showed that 2016 was not an aberration: America remains deeply divided, and another future US president could potentially destroy the Biden agreements just as Trump destroyed Obama's.
Although the voters have selected a traditional candidate for the White House, the allies feel chills and will not be easily calmed.
By the time he takes office next year, the road to further isolation will be well-traveled.
The new president will have to gauge how far and how fast he needs to backtrack to bring enough allies behind him to put the world on the path he desires.
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To get an idea of how difficult this will be, let's imagine his plan to contain Iran in a new multinational nuclear deal to replace the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which Trump scrapped.
How will Biden convince the UK, Germany and France, who invested unlimited energy in supporting the US to create the original deal, to join him in starting over?
And that's before we consider the complication of getting Russia and China back on their side, as he and Obama did in 2015. For example, China is unlikely to agree to a new deal with Iran until the United States makes concessions. in the South China Sea and on trade.
Successful foreign policy won't just be about winning the trust of friends and the acquiescence of enemies again.
It will be about building international confidence in America's unity of purpose, a difficult task for such a divided nation.
Biden may find that world order can no longer be restored the way he wants it.
After a few weeks in office, the road to the White House might seem, in hindsight, the easiest part of his journey as president.
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