Editor's note: Bradley Blankenship is a Prague-based American journalist, political analyst and freelance reporter. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

In his first major address as the chief U.S. diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out the "goals and values" of the Joe Biden administration to the American people. According to Blinken, the administration is not just going to pick up where former President Barack Obama's team left off; rather, the strategic calculus of the U.S. has changed since then. As Blinken said, "We're looking at the world with fresh eyes," though "some principles are enduring."

The first of these enduring principles, he said, is that American engagement around the world is important. This is true because if America fails to step up as an international leader, he says, another country would take that leadership role and potentially undermine America's interests. At the same time, abdication of American leadership could also result in no one taking the lead, which could create even more danger. Both, Blinken assured the folks at home, are bad for America. 

Second, nations need to cooperate. Blinken said that the Biden administration wants to lead with diplomacy, "because it's the best way to deal with today's challenges." Meanwhile, Biden still wants to maintain U.S. military supremacy because America's diplomatic power necessarily depends on its military power. 

Blinken hopes that these unwavering principles will guide U.S. foreign policy back to non-partisanship – that time when Republicans and Democrats used to lock arms and push for American dominance together as one. And that is inevitably how Blinken's speech came across: What's best for America is best for the world. It sounds all too familiar. 

There were at least some positives outlined in the eight-point Biden foreign policy agenda, however.

Cooperation on COVID-19, ensuring the entire world has access to vaccines and laying the foundation for deepening international disease management is crucial, is a positive development in U.S. foreign policy. So is working to ensure that the global economic recovery addresses the inequalities which have only been magnified by the coronavirus pandemic. Both of these are admirable goals, though how the Biden administration turns these words into actions remains to be seen. 

Blinken also said that the U.S. wants to renew democracy around the world by first getting its own house in order. An admission that there are indeed cleavages in the American system is significant – but positive. In order for the U.S. to paint itself as an exceptional country, it should indeed live up to that incredibly high standard. Furthermore, Blinken said the U.S. will not pursue military intervention or regime change because the American people have lost faith in this method of "democracy promotion."

Then there was discussion of immigration reform, the revitalization of alliances with key American allies, climate change and technology. Though certainly Biden will approach these issues in a different way, Blinken's speech framed them in a familiar sense.

Probably the most important point in the speech was the last point mentioned, which was the U.S. relationship with China. According to Blinken, though the U.S. has disagreements with several countries around the world, China represents the only serious threat to the "stable and open international system" that America established. "All the rules, values and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to," Blinken said could be undermined by China. 

On this note, Blinken stressed the need for Washington to approach Beijing from a position of strength. If we loop this back to the second principle of the Biden foreign policy approach, it's clear that he means leveraging an American-led alliance against China and leaning on the power of the U.S. military. This particular point doesn't just harken back to the "America First" politics of the last four years under Donald Trump, but actually sounds as if Blinken lifted this section of his speech from the Cold War. 

But China is not the Soviet Union. China does not export revolution, has never carried out diplomacy with ideological strings attached nor wants to upend the international system. China has actually achieved tremendous prosperity under the system as it exists, has been the engine for the largest poverty alleviation campaign in human history and is now serving as the most stable economy in the world.

On the contrary, the peace promised by Washington at the end of the Cold War has been a complete farce. Once achieving unipolar dominance, unilateral acts of aggression by the U.S. only increased: Wars of aggression were commonplace, zero-sum diplomacy became the norm, unilateral sanctions were (and still are) constant and breaches of sovereignty by American troops are just ho-hum business in Washington. 

In fact, in order for there to be a true "stable and open international system," the U.S. needs to lose this warrior mentality even if it's conveyed with a warm demeanor and a smile.

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