Biden's world

President Biden claims “America is back”. He plans to put diplomacy first and restore long-standing American alliances.

His predecessor, President Trump, left behind a very different world from the one he greeted in 2016. Fresh crises confront the Biden Administration, including the Myanmar coup and political unrest in Russia. And climate change is now an urgent global problem.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki are tasked with repositioning America in that shifting world. They will assume a host of difficult problems – the rise of China, Putin’s Russia, Iranian nuclear capability and the conflict in Syria.

So who are they? And can they bring America back, to assume a leadership role in this complex new world?

BBC Washington reporter Suzanne Kianpour, who covered the Iran nuclear negotiations during the Obama Administration, reports.

Producer: Sophie Reid.

(Photo: US President Joe Biden speaks about administration plans to confront climate change at the White House ceremony in Washington. Credit: Carlos Barria/Reuters)