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President-elect Biden this week picked Antony Blinken, a longtime aide and one of his closest foreign policy advisers, for the post of secretary of state.
Blinken has extensive foreign policy experience and, if confirmed, will face a series of emerging and persistent challenges, all in the midst of a dangerous pandemic.
Here are five things to know about Blinken.
Blinken has a multi-year working relationship with Biden
Blinken and Biden’s relationship dates back decades.
When Biden was chairman and a non-commissioned member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Blinken served as his Democratic Chief of Staff for six years. He then followed Biden to the White House when the senator was elected vice president, as Biden’s national security adviser.
Blinken went on to hold various positions in the Obama administration, most notably as an assistant to the president. Barack obama
Barack Hussein Obama Obama: Members of the Republican Party believe ‘white men are victims’ Texas warehouse where migrants housed in ‘cages’ are closed for human renovation North Carolina – still purple but up for grabs MORE and as the president’s senior deputy national security adviser.
He was at Biden’s side again after launching his presidential bid, as a key foreign policy adviser to the campaign.
Blinken said on Tuesday he accepted his nomination, said his relationship with the president-elect was the highlight of his professional career.
“Mr. President-elect, working for you – and having you as a mentor and friend – has been the greatest privilege of my professional life,” said Blinken.
And Biden, announcing Blinken as his chief foreign policy choice, called him one of his “closest and most trusted advisers.”
Blinken focused on the Middle East
Blinken admitted that he had become hyper-focused on foreign policy in the Middle East after the terrorist attacks of September 11 and again during the US invasion of Iraq.
When Biden was in the Senate, Blinken helped him craft a plan to address the divisions in Iraq. He pleaded for trying to divide Iraqis according to their ethnic or sectarian identity in order to create three zones that would have the capacity to govern themselves. The idea, however, was widely rejected, including by the then Iraqi prime minister.
Yet Blinken shaped American policy in the Middle East.
Under the Obama administration, he was responsible for building a coalition of dozens of countries working to counter Daesh in the region. Blinken also chaired the administration’s efforts to decide foreign policy, which focused on issues such as Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear program.
Blinken wants to boost the morale of the state
As Assistant Secretary of State under the Obama administration, one of Blinken’s last moments – and most memorable moments depending on who you ask – was kept out of public view at the party. vacation from the agency, where he picked up the guitar in the State Department band to play. a riff to a tune by Bob Dylan, with lyrics modified in homage to the staff.
“He’s been playing with his government colleagues for quite some time,” said Halie Soifer, who served in the State Department under Blinken.
Rep. Tom malinowski
Thomas (Tom) MalinowskiMalinowski pushes back GOP challenge in New Jersey House race Phil Murphy says no coronavirus outbreak in New Jersey is linked to Trump fundraiser Marjorie Taylor Greene argues with lawmaker of GOP about QAnon, antifa PLUS (DN.J.), who at the time was Deputy Secretary of the Office for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
Blinken, in accepting his appointment as Delaware’s secretary of state on Tuesday, thanked his “gang mates” alongside his colleagues in the Obama and Clinton administrations, the Senate and the State Department.
“That’s really what it symbolized. He was not just a leader as a deputy secretary, in terms of decision making at the top, he was a leader in terms of supporting the whole building, ”Soifer said.
Lew Lukens, who served as deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in London in the Obama administration until 2018, described Blinken as “humble and sober” but said he would bring deep understanding and appreciation to the State Department and that he’s “knowledgeable and thoughtful about Biden’s priorities.”
“I think it’s clear that this will be a team that recognizes the importance of working with allies and partners to address global and transnational threats,” Lukens said. “They understand that we can better fight terrorism, pandemics, climate change and other threats by working collaboratively with like-minded countries instead of pursuing an ‘American first / alone’ approach.”
Blinken is the stepson of a Holocaust survivor
Blinken credited his view of the United States as being shaped by both his father, who served in the Air Force during World War II and was Ambassador to Hungary, as well as his stepfather, a survivor of the Holocaust which saw the United States as a beacon of freedom and liberty.
He highlighted both of their stories in his remarks on Tuesday accepting his nomination, calling his father Donald Blinken his role model and hero.
Blinken also recounted how his stepfather, Samuel Pisar, came to America. Pisar, one of the few surviving members of his family, was hiding in the Polish woods to escape one of the last death marches at the end of WWII, when he saw a tank with a white star with five branches painted above. .
“He ran to the tank. The hatch opened. An African-American GI looked at him. He fell to his knees and spoke the only three words he knew in English that his mother had taught him: “God Bless America”. The GI took him to the tank, to America, to freedom, ”Blinken said.
Dan Fried, a former U.S. ambassador and foreign service veteran who has known Blinken for decades, said he believes this story exemplifies Blinken’s foreign policy vision.
“I never told him that, but I suspect his thinking on foreign policy is derived from his sense of America’s identity as a country of values,” he said in an interview with The Atlantic Council, “a country that could lift up its refugee. stepfather in America, and a country that knew the advancement of its values and interests was somehow linked.
Blinken has two young children
Blinken will enter the demanding job at a time when he and his wife will have two young children at home, making him the first modern-day Secretary of State to have young toddlers, including a child of one. year.
Blinken is married to Evan Maureen Ryan, who has also been active in American politics. The two met while serving in the Clinton administration.
During his time in government, Blinken also showed an interest in early education. In September 2016, Blinken appeared on popular children’s show Sesame Street as part of an effort to raise awareness about the plight of refugees and the work of the United Nations.
“It will be inspiring for working parents all over the world to see America’s best diplomat in action as he is also helping raise two toddlers,” tweeted Samantha power
Samantha Jane PowerBiden and Harris briefed by national security experts amid obstacles to transition Support swells to rename Edmund Pettus Bridge to Selma in honor of John Lewis after his death ‘Obamagate’ backfires : Documents show Biden, Obama did the right thing MORE, his former colleague who was Obama’s ambassador to the UN. “Thanks to Tony and the incomparable Evan Ryan for their family sacrifice.”
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