On Saturday, President-elect Joe Biden completed the formation of his diplomatic team, which will include many Obama-era alumni, with a marked desire to break with Donald Trump’s unilateralism and “reform” American foreign policy.
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The future head of state had already announced at the end of November that he had chosen another former member of the Obama administration, Anthony Blinken, for the crucial post of Secretary of State.
Number two in American diplomacy is Wendy Sherman (71), who was a diplomatic advisor under Bill Clinton before becoming Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs during Barack Obama’s second term.
Future Deputy Foreign Minister, M.I am Sherman was particularly the main focus of the United States in the Iran nuclear deal and worked on the North Korea issue in the Clinton administration.
Joe Biden has indicated, on several occasions, his intention, once invested, to return the United States to the Iran nuclear deal, from which Donald Trump emerged in 2018, while reimposing the lifted US sanctions. In 2015.
But the future head of state is waiting, at the same time, for Tehran to return to the strict implementation of the terms of the agreement, with which Iran recently obtained its freedom.
Another appointment was announced on Saturday, the appointment of Assistant Secretary of State for Administration and Resources, a kind of director of operations for US diplomacy.
This is Brian McCune, a close friend of Joe Biden, who had advised him for a long time while the latter was still Senator, before he held various positions in government during Barack Obama’s two terms.
‘America is back’
With Anthony Blinken, this team will have the task of “reforming” US foreign policy, as noted by a statement, the transition team of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, “but also imagining it differently.”
As he did when Anthony Blinken’s name was announced, the future president clearly wants to signal a break with Donald Trump’s nationalistic and unilateral foreign policy, to reconnect with a multilateral line.
In the statement, Biden said that the new faces of US diplomacy “embody my deep conviction that America is the strongest when it cooperates with its allies.”
Thus the future president wants to “restore the moral and global leadership” of the United States, with the support of his allies. Biden’s team said: “America is back, ready to show the world the way, not back down.”
Donald Trump emerged from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement, and has also distanced himself from the United Nations and the World Health Organization, as well as with the European Union and its members. Most influential during his tenure.
The outgoing president also relied on figures foreign from the world of diplomacy, such as successive Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo, to convey his harsher style abroad.
Joe Biden signals a return to professional diplomacy. On Saturday, he also officially selected three undersecretaries, three women who worked in Barack Obama’s government.
The appointment of each of these figures is subject to a vote by the Senate.
“Americans can rest assured that these patriots will advance the country’s interests and reflect its highest ideals on the international stage,” Bill Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote on Twitter in response to these announcements. .
Taking the opposite view of critics who already accuse him of nearly surrounding himself with former Obama-era alumni, the future president asserted that the State Department will be, at its head, more open than ever to diversity.
The Biden team argued, “We cannot handle this period with unchanging habits or thinking.” “We need leaders from diverse backgrounds who represent America.”