Russia, China, and extra: Biden promised to defeat authoritarianism.

When Secretary of State Antony Blinken strapped on a guitar and took the stage at a Kyiv rock membership final week to sing Neil Younger’s “Rockin’ within the Free World,” he didn’t amuse lots of the Biden administration’s critics, who questioned whether or not the jam session was in good style at a time when kids are ravenous in Gaza and when Russian forces are making speedy positive factors in jap Ukraine, partly as a result of lengthy delay in delivering US weapons to the entrance.

However the track’s eponymous refrain (Blinken skipped the much more caustic verses, which make it clear that Younger was being ironic) is an efficient illustration of how the Biden administration would love its overseas coverage to be seen, notably relating to assist for Ukraine. As Blinken informed the gang, Ukraine’s forces “are preventing not only for a free Ukraine however for the free world — and the free world is with you too.”

Nearly from the start, President Joe Biden has outlined his administration as locked in a battle to push again in opposition to the worldwide erosion of democracy and “win the twenty first century” in opposition to authoritarian powers like China and Russia. He has typically described this battle as guiding not simply America’s overseas coverage however its home priorities, saying America should show that democracy “nonetheless works” to ship financial development and prosperity. Such a rhetoric solely intensified after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Biden has framed as a take a look at of the democratic world’s resolve.

The democracy versus autocracy framing drew a stark distinction with Donald Trump, who as president took a narrowly transactional view of overseas coverage, had chummy relationships with leaders like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and the Saudi royal household, and undermined democratic norms at house.

It additionally drew a extra delicate distinction with Barack Obama, whose signature overseas coverage achievements — the Iran nuclear deal, the diplomatic opening to Cuba, breakthrough local weather change diplomacy with China — typically concerned doing enterprise with among the world’s most repressive governments.

“I imagine that — each ounce of my being — that democracy will and should prevail,” Biden informed the Munich Safety Convention a couple of weeks after taking workplace.

Placing that perception into follow has been harder.

What’s the US really doing on this planet?

In follow, the Biden administration’s overseas coverage has been extra typical than the rhetoric suggests: “Realpolitik from high to backside,” as worldwide relations scholar Paul Poast put it earlier this yr. The purpose has not a lot been to defeat authoritarianism writ massive as to compete with and comprise explicit authoritarian powers: China, Russia, and Iran.

Generally, as in US assist for Ukraine’s warfare effort and army assist to Taiwan, this will pretty be described as standing up for a beleaguered democracy. Generally, as within the upgrading of relations between the US and Vietnam that got here throughout Biden’s go to to the nation final yr, it’s arduous to see it that approach. Conveniently for the US, Vietnam — a significant American commerce companion — is more and more cautious about China’s territorial goals within the South China Sea, however the two international locations have very comparable political methods: single-party Communist regimes with out nationwide elections.

When the US convened a digital “summit of democracies” in 2021, an excellent portion of the protection and commentary targeted not on the conferences themselves, however on the visitor listing. For example, Hungary, a rustic whose authorities was backsliding on democracy and the rule of regulation and changing into more and more pleasant to Russia, was excluded. Poland, a rustic whose authorities was (on the time) backsliding on democracy and the rule of regulation, however was staunchly anti-Russian, was not.

In 2022, the US hosted the Summit of the Americas — a periodic gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders — however excluded Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, all authoritarian governments topic to US sanctions. The administration’s principled pro-democracy stance was undercut considerably by the truth that the White Home was concurrently planning a presidential journey to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis, as they’ve from quite a few earlier administrations, evidently get a move relating to Biden’s freedom agenda. The president famously promised on the marketing campaign path to make Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the dominion’s de facto ruler, a “pariah” over his function within the killing of journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. In 2022, with the warfare in Ukraine placing strain on international oil markets, Biden and “MBS” shared an awkward fist bump in Riyadh. Extra not too long ago, the administration has been pushing an bold deal underneath which Saudi Arabia would formally acknowledge Israel in change for concessions from Israel on Palestinian statehood and formal safety ensures from the US. The US hasn’t agreed to a pact like this with any nation since Japan in 1960.

Then there’s India, the place practically a billion voters are going to the polls this month, however the place strikes by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist authorities to sideline its opponents and crack down on the media have raised questions on how for much longer the “world’s largest democracy” will dwell as much as that title. The administration has been conspicuously quiet concerning the democratic backsliding in a rustic it considers a significant bulwark in opposition to Chinese language energy. This gentle contact has continued even within the face of compelling proof of plans by India’s intelligence providers to kill the federal government’s critics on US soil.

And eventually, there’s Israel’s warfare on Gaza. The administration’s arguments that international locations within the World South needs to be doing extra to again Ukraine and punish Russia within the identify of the rules-based worldwide order fall somewhat flat when the US continues to offer weapons to a rustic that even the State Division concludes is probably going violating the legal guidelines of warfare.

This administration is hardly the primary to fall in need of its personal rhetoric relating to democracy and human rights. And it’s not as if Trump would do extra to advance democracy or human rights if elected as a substitute — not relating to Israel, or Saudi Arabia, or every other nation.

However the sweep and ambition of this president and his group’s rhetoric make it arduous to not notice the inconsistencies as they rock on in an more and more unfree world.

This story initially appeared in In the present day, Defined, Vox’s flagship each day e-newsletter. Join right here for future editions.