[Peace-discuss] Tony Blinken, Biden's new Secretary of State

Tue Dec 1 00:29:32 UTC 2020

Tony Blinken, Biden's new Secretary of State, pushed for clandestine weapons
shipments to jihadist "moderate rebels" in Syria, Neo-Nazi so called
"freedom fighters" in Ukraine, and praised Trump for bombing Syria.

So much for "defeating fascism"!

What You Need to Know About Tony Blinken

Biden’s apparent choice for secretary of state most recently played the
influence game in Washington.

by  <https://prospect.org/topics/jonathan-guyer/> Jonathan Guyer 

November 23, 2020

Expand 

Guyer-Blinken.jpg

Official White House Photo by David Lienemann

For nearly two decades, Tony Blinken has served as President-elect Joe
Biden’s closest foreign-policy adviser, from the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee to the Obama White House. That Biden would choose him for a
high-ranking position in his administration was never in doubt. On Sunday,
we learned what that position would be: secretary of state.

Blinken is already being greeted by soft profiles focusing on his diplomatic
career, his youthful days spent in Europe, and his love of guitar. But for a
better sense of how he might actually craft foreign policy, it is essential
to look at his recent work as a strategic consultant, a brand of Washington
influence-peddling that has gotten little scrutiny. Strategic consultants
draw upon their contacts and knowledge of Washington to advise powerful
corporations; they do everything but lobby. This summer, I interviewed 60
Washington insiders as I investigated
<https://prospect.org/world/how-biden-foreign-policy-team-got-rich/> how
Blinken’s firm parlays connections into profit. The Biden transition team
would like you to overlook Blinken’s corporate career, but it’s crucial to
understand the most recent résumé item of America’s next top diplomat.

FOR ARTICLES Cabinet Watch 1200x630.jpg

1. After Serving Obama, He Cashed In 

Blinken launched
<https://prospect.org/world/how-biden-foreign-policy-team-got-rich/>
WestExec Advisors with fellow Obama national-security chiefs in 2018.
WestExec’s very name—a reference to the
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Executive_Avenue> avenue that runs along
the White House—suggested that its founders were trading off of their recent
experience in the Oval Office and were angling for positions in the next
administration. Blinken became a partner at a private equity firm named Pine
Island, too. It was quite a change for someone who spent most of his career
in government and had served most recently as Vice President Biden’s
national-security adviser (2009–2013) and as deputy secretary of state
(2015–2017). He and Michèle Flournoy, a former senior defense official,
registered the firm in Delaware and had a party to open their downtown D.C.
office suite with honchos from the Obama administration.

Who was the firm advising? WestExec staffers cited nondisclosure agreements
and declined to name clients. But in conversations with members of the firm,
I learned that Blinken and Flournoy used their networks to build a large
client base at the intersection of tech and defense. An Israeli surveillance
startup turned to them. So did a major U.S. defense company. Google
billionaire Eric Schmidt and Fortune 100 companies went to them, too.

“We are driven by helping companies who think they have a cool commercial
capability, and they think that there’s a market for it in the federal
space,” one WestExec employee told me. I found the lack of transparency
troubling. One key thing to watch for is which clients Blinken will reveal
in financial disclosures and Senate confirmation hearings.

Blinken knew his gig at WestExec would be temporary. Indeed he was so
confident that the firm arranged for an
<https://prospect.org/power/biden-cabinet-hopefuls-unusual-lease-westexec-bl
inken-flournoy/> exceptional contingency in its lease that allowed it to be
terminated without a penalty if a Democrat won the White House. Flournoy is
now a top contender for secretary of defense, and several other WestExec
staffers are likely to hold key roles in the administration. The firm’s
strategic planning has paid off.

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2. He’ll Push Biden Toward the Middle

Biden will become president at the time of a pandemic, an economic crisis,
and a crisis of American leadership. With Blinken as secretary of state,
we’re likely to see a return to an old guard of Democratic foreign policy.
Blinken has a “quite cautious, don’t-rock-the-boat approach,” one of his
former colleagues told me. “But we’re not at a risk-averse moment in our
history. It’s time for bold ideas.” That Blinken took a leading role in
guiding Biden’s
<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/06/joe-bidens-iraq-decisi
ons-haunt-him-2020/592669/> mistaken approaches to Iraq does not bode well
for a long-overdue withdrawal of America from conflicts in the Middle East.

Another issue is that Blinken seems to be more comfortable
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/america-first-is-only-making-the-wo
rld-worse-heres-a-better-approach/2019/01/01/1272367c-079f-11e9-88e3-989a3e4
56820_story.html> working with neoconservatives than with progressives. When
the Biden campaign attacked Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour in a call
this summer, activists raised concerns. The campaign
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/linda-sarsour-joe-biden-apology-muslim-v
ote> walked it back, and Blinken later apologized to the Muslim and Arab
American community. While some progressive foreign-policy experts have
<https://twitter.com/mattduss/status/1330695476321062912> supported the
Blinken pick, the Biden team only listens to progressives on foreign policy
when they make noise.

3. He’s Going to Be Powerful Because There Is No Biden Doctrine

As senator and vice president, Biden’s only consistent approach to the world
has been an emphasis on personal relationships, especially with foreign
leaders. This malleable worldview has given the national-security
establishment influence in advancing their own agendas within Biden’s team,
and it also means that key advisers have an outsized role in
decision-making.

Blinken recently offered a glimpse of Biden’s approach to statecraft on a
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-foreign-policy-adviser-antony-blinken-on
-top-global-challenges/> CBS podcast. “There is overreliance on the military
tool and an under-reliance on, for example, on diplomacy. And that would
change in a Biden administration,” Blinken said. The podcast was sponsored
by a major weapons maker. “At Lockheed Martin, your mission is ours,” read
an announcer. The tagline threw everything Blinken had said into question.

It makes it even more glaring that the paper of record
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/22/us/politics/biden-antony-blinken-secreta
ry-of-state.html> notes on A1 that Blinken plays in a band, but neglects to
mention his recent work for corporate and defense clients.

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