The father of two young children with his own band – known as Ablinken – has long hailed Biden’s old assistant as an ideal choice for both repairing the damage of U.S. federations and helping fashion policies with a range of challenges that are greater than any country. you can solve it. Observers from the misty bottom welcomed Blinken’s deep knowledge of every corner of Washington’s foreign policy institutions and his relationship with the president-elect.
“Mr. President-elect, who works for you as a mentor and friend, was the greatest privilege of my professional life,” Blinken said at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, where Biden introduced his national security team. Blinken continued, outlining the vision of the Biden team.
“As the president-elect said, we can’t solve all the world’s problems alone,” Blinken said. “We need to work with other countries. We need their cooperation. We need their partnership.”
The early years of Blinken, 58, imbued him with both an international outlook and democratic politics. She grew up in New York and Paris, where she moved with her mother to her stepfather, who survived Nazi camps during the Holocaust. Former U.S. Ambassador Gerard Araud on Monday praised Blinken for being “perfectly bilingual.”
‘Beautiful’
Bitter and divisive years in Washington, and in the State Department under the administration of President Donald Trump, many current and former foreign officials have described the word “beautiful.”
“Tony is super kind, super smart and strategic, a good leader and someone he will clearly trust the president,” said one of the current diplomats, many of the State Department employees who have felt proud over the past four years. “He’s not a monkey who can’t work in the bureaucracy – he’s an operator, but he’s kind. I can’t ask for better. Personally, I just love him very much, and I think he has a calm, non-political, experienced attitude to everything.” it will be very effective in repairing the damage. “
Lewis Lukens, a former career diplomat who served as ambassador to Senegal and the United States in Guinea-Bissau, said he was “sending a really positive message that the president (elected) is sending someone he is very close to, but also someone who understands and respects the institution. “
“The most important thing: you understand the State Department, you know the building, the people there respect and like it,” Lukens added. “And he is very close to (electing) the president, so when he is there on the global stage, there will be no question of distance between him and the president on any political issue. He will speak to the authority of someone who is very, very close to the president.”
The current foreign service officers, who were not authorized to register, welcomed the news and called Blinken professional, smart, persistent and thoughtful.
“He goes into everything very well prepared. He is a thorough and excellent professional,” said a second current diplomat who had previously worked with him.
“Most importantly, he’s just a civilian, determined hand that we need to repair on the ship,” said a third current U.S. diplomat.
“The adults are back,” said a current senior U.S. diplomat.
Blinken told Twitter on Monday that “messages from friends and colleagues I have received over the past 15 hours are humiliating. It is an honor to officially announce my appointment as Secretary of State. If confirmed, this is a mission I take on wholeheartedly.”
Making connections with Bidendel
Blinken attended Harvard University before earning a law degree from Columbia University. After a little work as a journalist, he set the direction for foreign policy and eventually held several senior positions in the Clinton and Obama administration over three decades.
His father, one of the founders of EM Warburg Pincus & Company’s investment bank in New York, served as Ambassador to Hungary from then-President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1998. And Blinken and his father raised funds for Michael Dukakis’s 1988 failed bid. for the presidency.
From 1994 to 2001, Blinken served on the Clinton National Security Council and then became the Democratic Personnel Director of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, where he first established a relationship with Biden between 2002 and 2008.
During President Barack Obama’s first term, he was Vice President National Security Adviser to Blinken Biden and then became the President’s assistant and deputy chief national security adviser. Blinken was also chairman of the government’s main foreign policy forum, helping shape policy on Iran’s nuclear program and Afghanistan.
After winning his second term, Obama appointed Blinken to the Deputy Secretary of State, the nation’s number two diplomat, helping to define the administration’s approach to Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the global refugee crisis, the rise of ISIS and the Syrian war, and the administration’s attempt to renew relations with Asia and China.
In interviews, Blinken spoke of his sense of responsibility for Syrian politics, saying that all those who worked on it “should acknowledge that we have failed, not because we have tried but failed to” prevent “the horrific loss of life.” And huge shift.
“It’s something I take with me for the rest of my days,” Blinken told CBS in May. He said “a bad situation” in Syria was “made worse” by Trump’s administrative policies, including troop marches and the departure of American Kurdish allies. According to him, dealing with this is working with allies, mobilizing others to respond, and using alliance leverage to bring about change.
Former career diplomat Michael McKinley, who resigned amid the debate in Ukraine when he was a senior adviser to current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said Blinken’s long experience in US foreign policy trenches and his international connections will help rebuild such alliances.
“The incoming Biden administration has already signaled the importance of quickly engaging with our major global allies and partners, strengthening our security alliances in Asia and Europe, and addressing important outstanding trade issues that affect our national prosperity.” he said. “I think it will witness a very proactive and effective approach in rebuilding our relationships with the outside world.”
