Antony Blinken: Biden picks loyal lieutenant to lead mission to restore US reputation on world stage

The father of the two babies, who has his own connection with the name Ablenken, Biden’s old assistant, has been praised as the ideal choice both to repair the damage to American alliances and to help fashion policy makers solve a variety of problems that no other country can solve. Foggy Bottom’s observers praised Blink’s deep knowledge of all corners of Washington’s foreign policy institutions and his connection to the President-elect.

M. The elected president, who works for you, having you as my mentor and friend has been the greatest privilege of my professional life, Blinken said Tuesday at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, where Biden introduced his national security team. The blinking continued and described the vision of the Biden team.

As the elected president said, we can’t solve all the world’s problems on our own, Blinken said. We need to work with other countries. We need their cooperation. We need their partnership.

Blinken’s early years, at the age of 58, immersed him in both international perspectives and democratic politics. He grew up in New York and Paris, where he settled with his mother and stepfather, who survived the Nazi camps during the Holocaust. The former French ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, praised Blinken on Monday for his excellent bilingual skills.

Good

After bitter and controversial years in Washington and at the State Department under President Donald Trump, many current and former foreign officers on duty spoke of him in a word that is seldom heard in the capital: pleasant.

Tony is super fun, super smart and strategic, he’s a good leader and he’ll certainly have the confidence of the president, said an acting diplomat, one of the many State Department staff who has felt like a buffet for the past four years. He’s not a nerd who can’t work in bureaucracy – he’s an operator, but he’s good. It couldn’t have been better. Personally, I like him very much and I think his calm, apolitical and experienced approach to everything will be very effective in repairing the damage.

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Lewis Lookens, a former career diplomat who served as US Ambassador in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, said it is a really positive sign that the (elected) President is sending someone who is very close to him and who understands and respects this attitude.

The most important thing: He understands the State Department, he knows the building, and the people in the respect and appreciate it, Lukens said. And he is very close to the (elected) president, so when he enters the global arena, the distance between him and the president on political issues will not be an issue. He will speak with the authority of someone very, very close to the president.

Other current foreign officers on duty who are not authorized to speak at official level welcomed the news and described Blinken as professional, intelligent, consistent and attentive.

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He prepares so well for anything. He is a meticulous and unparalleled expert, said the second current diplomat who has worked with him in the past.

The most important thing is that he’s just a civilian, a strong hand that we have to properly steer the ship, the third active U.S. diplomat said.

The adults are back, said a senior American diplomat.

On Monday, Blinken reported on Twitter that the messages I had received from friends and colleagues in the past 15 hours were humiliating. I am honored to announce officially that I have been appointed Secretary of State. If this is confirmed, I will take this mission with all my heart.

Connection with Biden

Blinken went to Harvard University and then earned a law degree at Columbia University. After a short period in journalism, he began a career in foreign policy, having held various senior positions in the administrations of Clinton and Obama for three decades.

His father, one of the founders of the New York investment bank E.M. Warburg Pincus & Company, was President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Hungary from 1994 to 1998. And Blinken took part with his father in the fundraising for Michael Dukakis’ failed presidential bid in 1988.

Blinken served on Clinton’s National Security Council from 1994 to 2001, then became Director of the Democratic Staff of the Senate Commission on External Relations, where he began a relationship with Biden from 2002 to 2008.

During the first term of Barack Obama, Blinken served as national security advisor to Vice President Biden, then as assistant to the president and deputy head of the national security advisor. Blinken also chaired the government’s most important foreign policy decision-making forum and helped shape policy on Iran’s and Afghanistan’s nuclear programmes.

After winning a second term, Obama Blinken was appointed deputy secretary of state, making him the country’s second diplomat. From that moment on, he helped determine the government’s attitude towards the Russian invasion of Crimea, the global refugee crisis, the rise of ISIS and the war in Syria, and the government’s attempt to reassess its relations with Asia and China.

Mr Blinken spoke in his interviews about his sense of responsibility for policy in Syria and said that all those who worked there must admit that we failed, not because we wanted to try, but because we failed to prevent the terrible loss of life and massive displacement.

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This is what I will take with me for the rest of my life, Blinken told CBS in May. He said the bad situation in Syria is exacerbated by the trump card government’s policies, including the withdrawal of troops and the withdrawal of the American Kurdish allies. The way to solve this problem is by working with allies, mobilizing others to respond and using the levers of alliances to bring about change.

Michael McKinley, a former career diplomat who resigned over disagreements in Ukraine when he was senior advisor to current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said Blinken’s long experience in US foreign policy and the relationships he has built internationally will help rebuild the alliances needed for this kind of work.

The new Biden administration has already indicated the importance of rapidly rebuilding our relationships with key global allies and partners, strengthening our security alliances in Asia and Europe, and addressing important outstanding trade issues affecting our national prosperity, he said. I think you are witnessing a very active and effective approach to restoring our relationships with the outside world.

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