Joe Biden's Foreign Policy and National Security nominees & the implications for our country
President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees for key foreign policy and national security positions offer a return to multilateralism after four years of isolationism under the Trump administration.
President-elect Joe Biden has begun the task of selecting individuals to fill core positions in his foreign policy and national security apparatus, revealing a slate of consummate individuals with years and decades of experience in national security and foreign policy circles. Biden´s cabinet picks reaffirm his chief foreign policy ambition — restoring American credibility and stoutness after four years of norm-busting and isolationism under the Trump administration.
¨It’s a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure,” Biden said, introducing his nominees. “And it’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back.¨
A sundry of Biden´s nominees have long-standing ties to the president-elect, for instance, long time confidant Fmr. Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, whom Biden has nominated for Secretary of State. Many of the nominees have built their careers working in central roles in the administrations of past presidents, particularly the Obama administration, including but not limited to Avril Haines, a former deputy CIA director who has been nominated as the first female director of National Intelligence; and Jake Sullivan, an erstwhile State Department official and advisor to Hillary Clinton who also toiled for a time as national security advisor to then-Vice President Biden.
The current assortment of Biden nominees reflects his campaign pledge to craft an administration that reflects the diversity of America, nominating career diplomat Linda Thomas Greenfield, a former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under the Obama administration and former United States ambassador to Liberia under President George W. Bush. Furthermore, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, a former deputy at the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama who if confirmed by the Senate would be the first Cuban-American to serve as Secretary of that department. Biden also handpicked former Secretary of State and long-time ally John F. Kerry for a new role within the national security community — Climate envoy, another gesticulation to the country, cynics on the political left — and global community of President-elect Biden’s appetency to morph his administration into one that puts the climate crisis at the forefront. Internal domestic predicaments from the ongoing pandemic to the weakened economy are likely to consume Biden’s first months in office.
The President-elect’s decision to nominate trusted advisers and virtuoso officials for these climacteric foreign policy roles shows that the President-elect is committed to crafting a foreign policy team that he knows can carry out the taxing task of rebuilding America’s global concordats and prominence.
