Reflecting on his time at the Obama White House, Sullivan said there could be more work to be done to put the average American in a situation room on a regular basis. And he paused for a long moment when asked how Trump and the rise of Trumpism have affected his worldview, for example, for the recruitment of people sitting at home who may have missed out on focusing on international nuclear negotiations, peace talks and trade. Treaties.
“When you’ve been in government for years working on the Iran deal, or working on an Asia-Pacific rebellion, or working on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it’s not like you have a full view of what’s going on at home. You lose – but your focus is on other things, “said Sullivan. “I think the 2016 campaign affected my thinking, but it wasn’t about Trump. It was about the heated debate that was in the Democrats’ primary. It was about a belief, as I left national security and entered domestic political discourse, about how such a large section of our country felt that their government was not working for them. ”
Sullivan warns that he does not believe such economic concerns were the sole driver of Trump’s 2016 victory, which he says was also fueled by appeals for identity and seclusion. But the campaign gave him a “crash course,” he said, emphasizing the importance of bringing inequality, disarray, and issues of connection between working people and his government “to every table in the White House – situation room.”
So what will the Sullivan-led National Security Council look like? Whether it becomes too big or micro-managing, Sullivan insists – criticisms that Obama dogges the NSC, which accuses cabinet agencies of cracking down on prejudices, then it can adjust military levels or insist on signing individual drone strikes. Keeps.
“I fundamentally see my work as supporting and advancing the work of a comprehensive national security team in the service of the mission and strategy of the President’s selection,” he said. “My goal is to do a process that can give enough direction, but then empower those departments and agencies to help spears.”
Salman Ahmed, a former Obama NSC official, said he was not likely to be confined to the traditional constitution. “He has long argued persuasively that these issues do not fit neatly into the bureaucratic lens.”
The early years of Obama’s NSC were often tense, especially under the chairmanship of retired General Jim Jones, who was always at loggerheads with the families of political aides around the president and resigned before mid-2010.
Amidst the many challenges Sullivan will face immediately, knowingly becoming a colleague like the next White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein will not be one of them. “I can argue that no two people know each other better, have worked more closely, overlapped more or have built better relationships on a day-one than their first staff / national security adviser pair,” Rains said. Said.
Another former Obama White House official said they all worked down together in the Obama administration. “They’re all friends – they’re not strangers, they’re not rivals, and at least they’re all things.”
One could argue that what makes a team insular is due to the kind of groupthink that can lead to mistakes and missed opportunities. Outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already mocked his successors for allegedly living in a “fantasy world” and “multilateralism for hanging out with your friends at a cold cocktail party.”
A former Obama White House official said the survival ties between the Biden crew would make them effective – unlike the early days of the Trump presidency, which suffered from rivalry, competitive media leaks, backstabbing and constant staff turnover.
For all of Sullivan’s innate caution, he’s a U.S. citizen. The traditional definition of national security: seems to break down quickly with the load of predecessors on tanks and missiles, the grand summit and spy satellites.
At least initially, the “main focus” of Biden NSC’s work is to restructure the NSC to defeat the coronavirus epidemic and make public health a permanent national security priority, Sullivan said. China will also be kept on notice, he added.
“The way you really make sure this doesn’t happen again is by sending a clear message to China that the United States and the rest of the world will not accept any circumstances in which we do not have an effective public health surveillance system, with an international dimension. The whole world is moving forward, ”Sullivan said. The main theme of Sullivan’s recurrence is the re-establishment of alliances and partnerships that were ignored or accelerated under Trump.
“Unlike the policy of the last few years, we will be able to rally the rest of the world behind us” on key foreign policy and national security issues, such as pushing Iran to return to compliance with the nuclear deal so that the U.S. Sullivan said negotiations could resume.
He is equally optimistic about his lofty goals: “Rally our allies to fight corruption and cryptocurrency, and hold the system of authoritarian capitalism accountable for greater transparency and participation in the rule-based system.”
That effort will need to start at home – as is well documented, the world’s cryptocurrency regime relies heavily on money laundering networks that are typically spread across the global centers of global finance, such as New York and London, with weak investments in places like Delaware. Is supported by the rules.
But according to a former Obama administration official, Biden and the extension will clean up the “shattered glass” left by the Trump administration, as well as the international community, which is fed up with US politically motivated whiplash. Plays.
“It’s a different world now,” said Dennis Ross, a veteran ambassador who worked with Sullivan at the Obama White House. “But Jack brings experience and personal relationships that are inevitable.”
