Time - USA (2020-11-30)

37

VIDEO GAMES

Swing and

a miss

PlayStation’s new Spider-

Man: Miles Morales game

was uniquely positioned

to respond to our current

moment. Instead, its

creator Insomniac bends

over backward to avoid

any nuanced conversation

about racism in policing.

While there’s lots to love,

like the thrill of swinging

through a gorgeously

rendered New York, players

will notice that police are

largely missing from the

crime-fighting game.

Miles, a Black–Puerto

Rican Spider-Man and

son of a cop, may have

complicated feelings about

criminal justice. But we

never hear them. At one

point, private security

guards aim to kill Miles,

even as he puts his hands

up; passersby pull out their

phones to film. But since

the men with the guns are

masked corporate stooges,

not police officers, the

moment loses its power.

Even more so than

books and film, video

games literally put players

in characters’ shoes, which

should help build empathy.

Insomniac rendered a

realistic city. The next step

should have been credibly

depicting Miles’ specific

point of view on the urgent

matters of the day.

—Eliana Dockterman

Miles Morales is Spider-Man

in the new PlayStation game

For Four years,

Donald J. Trump has

kept both U.S. foes

and allies off-balance

with his “America

first” approach to

global politics. For

a world that had grown accustomed

to the U.S. as rule-maker rather than

rule-breaker of the international order,

Trump’s embrace of “What have you

done for us lately?” international

relations was understandably jarring. But

it also served to open up new frontiers

in U.S. foreign policy. Only

someone with Trump’s

disregard for protocol could

have engaged the North

Koreans as quickly as he did;

only someone with Trump’s

willingness to bring military

and economic power quickly

to bear could so quickly

reshape the power balance of

the Middle East in Israel’s—

and, by extension, the

U.S.’s—favor.

There’s an argument to be made

for employing Trump’s approach—

unilateral, tactical, and much more

likely to use U.S. power in short and

limited durations—in our increasingly

“G-Zero” world, one lacking in global

leadership. In such a dysfunctional

world, securing gains whenever you

can get them and moving on to the next

challenge hold appeal. Trump will leave

office on Jan. 20 with more foreign

policy wins than his critics will want to

give him credit for precisely because of

this approach. He will also leave office

having failed to fundamentally address

critical long-term challenges facing the

U.S., such as the rise of China and the

enduring threat of climate change.

President-elect Joe Biden’s return

to Washington also marks a return to

more traditional foreign policy, one

that lines up with Biden’s own personal

orientation: multi lateral, strategic and

much more hesitant to use U.S. military

power when push comes to shove, even

when the U.S. holds the asymmetrical

advantage. For challenges like climate

and China—multifaceted, complex, with

spillover across all sectors of society—a

concerted effort among like-minded

allies is needed, making the consensus-

building Biden a U.S. President better

suited to lead the charge. But that

hesitancy to use U.S. power means that

the U.S. is unlikely to reap the same

type of short-term rewards it did under

Trump; it’s also worth noting that there’s

never been a more difficult time since

the end of World War II to be an avowed

multilateralist.

Not that it is all bad

news for Biden on the

international front; following

Trump as President means

that Biden gets to continue

drawing down U.S. troops in

Afghanistan and Iraq with

minimal political blowback

at home. It also means he can

continue pushing China with

more sanctions, all while couching his

actions in more traditional diplomatic

speak and bringing U.S. allies on board

in the process. That return to diplomatic

normalcy alone will yield dividends

for Biden—expect to hear from

dozens of supportive allies in coming

months as a Biden-led US reaffirms its

commitments to the U.N., NATO, the

Paris Agreement and the World Health

Organization.

But when it comes to the big global

issues, Biden is about to discover

firsthand that he is dealing with the

same world Trump is—one in which

the appetite for global cooperation

is limited. That was fine for Trump,

because he was never inclined to go

that route in any case, relying on U.S.

military and economic might to power

through his preferred outcomes. But

for a President Biden who values

international coordination and

cooperation, that poses a unique and

existential challenge. He now gets four

years to figure it out. 

THE RISK REPORT

Biden faces a world that will be

wary of U.S. leadership

By Ian Bremmer

Biden is

about to

discover

firsthand he

is dealing

with the

same world

Trump is