so, the biden doctrine seems to be something like this: america is the dominant ape around here, and when it walks into the room, it's going to grab you by the lapels first and put you in a position of subservience, so that you show the proper respect. you can prostrate yourself, if you think it's appropriate; the point is that the hierarchy has to be established as a precondition, before any discourse can take place. he may even turn out to be relatively benign with you if you show him the proper deference, but the pecking order must be defined before anything else.
it's a sheltered outlook of reality, in 2021 - after years of trumpism, and many more years of american unilateralism giving way to a global multilateralism that sees american influence as dangerous. in the sense that it turns back the clock to the 50s, it's almost more trumpist than trump.
i suspect that there's a large number of young staffers that are arguing for a course correction, but whether they're heard or not depends on how long biden manages to live and maintain some semblance of mental health.
and, thus this is maybe an interesting angle - for all the attempts to compare biden to roosevelt, which always were and always will be laughable, he may, in the end, turn out more like churchill, as he tries to save a crumbling empire from collapse.