The Hill’s Top Opinions: Biden administration is in a crisis of its own making with Saudi Arabia

View Online  Opinion Thursday, October 13 ©  AP Good Thursday evening. This is Daniel Allott with The Hill's Top Opinions.   Some politicians and foreign policy experts are urging the U.S. to end its defense relationship with Saudi Arabia in retaliation for a Saudi-led oil production cut.   But that's not the prudent solution, argues former Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy SETH CROPSEY.   Instead, Cropsey writes, the Biden administration should "repair the U.S.-Saudi relationship and correct its Middle East policy without appearing to capitulate to Saudi pressure."   "With a bit of luck, resolve and political skill, the Biden administration can resolve this crisis of its own making and strengthen the Western coalition against Russia."   It won't be easy. Saudi Arabia has become a pariah state in the eyes of many, including Joe Biden, who used that exact word to describe the country when he entered office.   But Russia's war in Ukraine and soaring energy prices prompted Biden to visit Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on bended knee in July, even giving the dictator a friendly fist-bump.   MBS responded by stabbing Biden in back last week when Saudi-led OPEC+ agreed to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day, aggravating the inflation that's accelerating across the West, and just in time to hurt Biden's party in the midterm elections. Cropsey, founder and president of Yorktown Institute, argues that to mend the U.S.-Saudi rift, the Biden team must look at the roots of the problem. "Today's crisis stems from a combination of high-handedness and strategic irrationality," he writes.     Biden's foreign policy team is full of many of the same Obama administration officials who tried to engineer a regional realignment away from Israel and the Gulf states and towards Iran and Asia. But, says Cropsey, "the worst possible reaction from the U.S. would be to spurn Saudi Arabia while reaching out to petro-state alternatives such as Iran."   Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia need off-ramps from the current imbroglio. Cropsey proposes several for both sides before concluding that "if the current crisis does not shatter the Biden team's strategic assumptions, very little short of a deeply unwanted escalation will do so."   Read Cropsey's op-ed here.   Not subscribed to The Hill's Top Opinions? Sign up here. 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As one university professor and former Democratic official told me: "In today's world of media, no party has the ability to tell any candidate, let alone the sitting president of the U.S., that they can't run for reelection." The only way to affect that decision is through popular opinion. Read the op-ed here How Russians can redeem themselves morally By ALEXANDER MOTYL, professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark No nation is fated to damnation and no nation is morally unregenerate — unless, of course, it does nothing to stop its descent into hell. So, too, the Russians are redeemable, if they redeem themselves. Read the op-ed here Why is the IMF collecting surcharges from developing countries? By STEVEN PHILLIPS, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research The International Monetary Fund should "first, do no harm" by eliminating the regressive surcharges that worsen crises in countries already in financial and economic trouble. There is no excuse for taking this money at a time when tens of millions of people in the countries that must pay it are facing increasing adversity.  Read the op-ed here QUICK TAKES Why Generation Z might not be as 'woke' as most think Why warning Putin of 'catastrophic consequences' isn't enough Nature is disappearing: Here's why it matters and what to do about it   If Putin goes nuclear, Biden should choose the 'merely bad' option Stay Engaged The Hill's Top Opinions is written by Daniel Allott, an opinion editor at The Hill and the author of "On the Road in Trump's America: A Journey Into the Heart of a Divided Nation."   Views expressed by contributors are theirs and not the opinion of The Hill.   Check out The Hill's Opinion section online for the latest. Interested in submitting an op-ed? Click here. 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