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When Joe Biden comes to power in January, his closest foreign policy adviser will be a guitar-playing Beatles fanatic who began promoting American values as a high school student in Paris during the cold war.
In the coming weeks, the president-elect is expected to appoint Antony Blinken, a member of three decades in Democratic foreign policy circles, who first worked with Biden in the Senate, as secretary of state or national security adviser.
Whether he serves close to Biden in the West Wing or as the top American diplomat, Blinken will return to familiar ground.
A former speechwriter to President Bill Clinton, he was Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president, before becoming Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser and undersecretary of state.
Blinken’s return to the corridors of power will come as the United States tries to rebound from the blows it has suffered on the world stage during four years of Donald Trump’s international isolationism.
While some of the challenges will be familiar to Mr. Blinken, he will also face new dilemmas, such as dealing with an even more assertive China.
Robert Malley, director of the International Crisis Group, who was Blinken’s classmate in high school, said the Washington veteran had the perfect experience to restore American credibility.
In addition to coming from a family with a pedigree in foreign policy, his father was an ambassador to Hungary and his uncle in Belgium, the allies say he can put himself in the shoes of others due to his experience abroad.
Tony was an American in Paris, and both terms are key. He was very aware of being an American and believed in American values. But he also understood how American politics affects the rest of the world because he lived abroad and witnessed how others view America, “Malley said.
“At that time, the United States was not particularly popular in Europe, and in France in particular. Tony navigated those two universes. “
In a recent Intelligence Matters podcast, Blinken said the United States had to rebuild alliances to address the Trump-enabled “democratic recession” that allowed “autocracies from Russia to China.” . . exploit our difficulties ”.
Blinken is a pragmatic realist who believes in the power of America but understands its limits. You will also have Washington’s most valuable currency: the president’s ear. He is so close to Biden that some see him as his “alter ego.”
Tony Blinken was Joe Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president, before becoming Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Nick Burns, the number three former state department official who has known Blinken since the Clinton administration, said his network of friends around the world is combined with an incredible array of experience from his time in the Senate, the state department and the White House.
“He was at the table of every major Obama administration meeting for eight years and he has a unique view of the entire range of national security issues,” Burns said.
A 58-year-old soccer player, who has uploaded two of his songs to Spotify and sometimes has a guitar in the background during video calls, is well-liked for his easy-going manners and inclusive approach.
Antony Blinken depicted in the 1980 École Jeannine Manuel yearbook
In her high school yearbook, the page with her photograph is inscribed with Pink Floyd’s handwriting, “just another brick in the wall,” hinting at her willingness to avoid Washington’s traditional rigid hierarchy.
A former senior state department official said he was popular because he valued opinions regardless of how junior or senior the person was, and he was confident enough to give credit to others. “It’s never about him or his ego.”
But some say her inclusive style meant her core beliefs were sometimes difficult to determine. “I don’t get a good read of his foreign policy thinking because he didn’t prevail,” says a former Senate aide to Biden.
A former Obama administration official said he also tended to hold too many meetings and make clearance decisions. “Like the big dog, will you lead to decisions or needle problems to death?” they asked.
Defenders said he simply wanted to avoid rushing into bad decisions. The former Senate aide added that it was good to finish meetings on time. “When someone tried to prolong a meeting with strange comments, he gave them a yellow card. If you did it again. . . it was a red card. “
While some found his views opaque, others emphasize that he has long been clear about the importance of promoting democracy and human rights in American foreign policy.
He advocated military action against Syria after the Assad regime used chemical weapons in 2013, a path Obama did not follow, and applauded Trump for attacking Syria after the regime used sarin gas against citizens in 2017.
Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, said Blinken and other Democrats created a group called the “Phoenix Initiative” to debate whether the party needed a stronger approach to national security after John Kerry lost to George W. Bush in the 2004 elections.
He said that when the group held discussions, Blinken was also a strong advocate of using America’s power for good and defending human rights. “I was very surprised that he was passionate about that,” he said.
Philip Gordon, a former Obama administration official, said that opinion was informed by his family history. His Polish-born stepfather, Samuel Pisar, survived Auschwitz and eventually ended up in the United States, where he became a successful international lawyer, while other relatives entered the United States as refugees.
“That has made him believe that America can and should do good in the world,” Gordon said. But I would pair that with the notion that he is a true pragmatist who also understands the limits of American power. He is anything but an ideologue. “
The other former Obama official said Blinken would likely take a tougher stance on human rights than the Obama White House. “Tony would be visibly tougher on Russia and more receptive to the idea of ideological competition with China, increasing the democracy promotion and human rights dimension of foreign policy by some points.”
McFaul said Blinken was also more decisive than some believe. When he argued that Biden should meet with Russian opposition figures after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 2011, “Tony took about three seconds to say it’s a very good idea,” in contrast to a much more difficult sale. with Obama. team in 2009.
Blinken’s views on alliances and promoting democratic values dovetail with the growing view in Washington that the United States needs to work more closely with its allies to gain greater influence to confront China.
A former European official, who has worked with Blinken, said the fluent French speaker would be welcomed in Europe and would help repair the damage done in the past four years. But he said he would do so in a more discreet and collegiate way than some predecessors.
“He is not a man to appear on the front page,” he said. “He’s not Henry Kissinger, in a good way and in a bad way.”
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