When US President-elect Joe Biden formally unveiled his national security team this morning, sighs of relief could be heard around the world.
A stage featuring half a dozen experienced competent officials should hardly be seen as anything unusual but after the past four years it is being hailed as a breakthrough.
They might be from the Washington swamp but that’s now a good thing, especially as Biden will have to get his nominees through a difficult Senate. Nor does safe mean boring — there are plenty of firsts among the diverse group.
“America is back,” Biden declared from Wilmington, Delaware, adding that this was a team “ready to lead the world, not retreat from it”.
It was a carefully managed message of comfort for allies from Brussels to Canberra and the beginning of the process of moving away from America first and back to global rules-based order.
“Multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back,” Biden declared. He didn’t need to add that the greatest global threat in recent years has been from within.
Although the stage lacked one key figure in the as yet unnamed defence secretary, it did feature the all-important secretary of state. Antony Blinken could not be more qualified having served as a deputy secretary of state and is one of Biden’s closest foreign policy advisers.
Indeed so close are they it has been noted he strongly disagreed with Biden on key issues when they worked together in the Obama administration.
Gosh. A key official speaking his mind, standing up to his boss. Incredible it even needs to be said, but Biden reiterated it this morning when he said these officials “will tell me what I need to know and not what I want to know”.
Australia is welcoming the Blinken appointment as a known entity, someone who is across the China threat and less likely to “pivot” back to the Atlantic or focus on the Middle East as is the fear in an incoming administration.
Not that he won’t have to repair crucial alliances in Europe and counter the Russian threat, but the man who was instrumental in pushing freedom of navigation exercises in the the South China Sea will prove a key ally in the complex relationship with China.
His first task though will be rebuilding the State Department that was cleaned out by Donald Trump’s original secretary of state, Rex “the wrecker” Tillerson.
The other key national security nominees all told their personal stories, and as Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris explained, Biden wanted to “select a cabinet that looks like America and reflects the best of our nation”.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a veteran black diplomat who grew up in the segregated south, will be ambassador to the United Nations — a post which will be elevated to cabinet level.
Avril Haines is the first female director of national intelligence and a woman whose CV as a physicist and lawyer includes everything from running a bookshop to building a plane.
Perhaps the most stark symbolism was the appointment of Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of homeland security — the son of Jewish Cuban refugees will be in charge of immigration and border control.
But probably the most radical appointment was former secretary of state John Kerry in the newly created role of climate tsar, and the fact he was at the national security team unveiling shows just how seriously the Biden administration will push the issue.
The next appointment due to be announced imminently will be the vital role of secretary of the Treasury, expected to go to former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.
Progressives in the Democratic Party had hoped Elizabeth Warren might get the job but Biden must choose candidates who can actually be confirmed. (At least until he can win back the Senate in the midterms perhaps.)
Yellen is highly respected — Warren commended her appointment — and most crucially Wall Street is obviously delighted as the Dow powered through the key 30,000-point mark overnight to set a new record.
The outgoing president tried to take credit for that, but it was quite clearly a Biden relief rally.
Antony Blinken? Brave? Possibly, if spruiking the invasion and destruction of countries is an act of bravery in the places where US foreign policy is made
Jesus H. Christ.
What, precisely is the Russian threat? Exactly which of our national interests or priorities do they threaten? Is it that they refuse to offer submission to the Imperial Seat and humbly accept vassal status, like us?
Wow, sorry, Joe, did no one tell you? Oh, that’s right, the briefings haven’t begun yet. Well let me fill you in. We, the rest of the world, have learnt something these past four years. Firstly, America is prepared to elect and engulfed a deluded, divisive and dangerous demagogue. We won’t forget that anytime soon. Second, America throw allies to the wolves (the Kurds) and aside with contempt (NATO et. al.). We won’t forget that anytime soon. Thirdly, 70+ million Americans support the demagogue (1/3 of the population). Unforgettable. Finally, America first. A great reminder of the truth at the heart of American thinking and policy. We remember now. So, Joe, good luck, wishing you well, but please don’t stump up expecting us to be the same. We’re not. You are not.
Spot on Richard, but still we must be at least a little optimistic that Biden and his team can see now how the rest of the world thinks, and are capable of moving the US in the proper direction.
Covid and climate change provides a setting where urgent improvements can be made.
Here too, but we are stuck with our own Trump for a while yet.
Keeping in mind that Trump in the US and Morrison in Australia are symptoms of the condition that afflicts each society. They didn’t create the policies we ascribe to them. If they created the lies, we live in a society where those lies are seen by many as acceptable.
Not to spoil your expectoration but 70M is not a third of the population (325M).
It’s a third of the ‘possible’ (pace the multifarious voter suppression measures) electorate.
However, given what they do with their vote, would you really want another 1/3 weighing in?
Demos means ‘the Many’, aka the mob – which is always less than the sum of its parts.
This team is definitely talented enough to bring the US back to where it was. Trouble is that’s not where the majority want to go. Sounds to me like a perfect recipe for Trump to get re-elected in four years.
“smart, brave and diverse…”
No, not really. The Atlantic captures it much better, with “sleepily reassuring”. Biden is acting like it’s still 2016. He’s determined to ignore the whole of the last four years. He’s learned nothing and forgotten everything.That’s a huge mistake.