Antony Blinken Secretary Of State reaction.
Reports are out that Antony Blinken, a former Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Secretary Of State, who worked with Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton during the Obama years, is President-Elect’s pick for Secretary Of State.
There are more negatives than positives to this choice, but it isn’t entirely doom and gloom. Blinken has a deeply problematic record on encouraging the imperialistic neoconservative impulses of US foreign policy, and is an “internationalist” (read that as interventionist in this case). He supported to invasion of Iraq, the interventions in Syria, and views the world through the prism of conventional western foreign policy.
His record on Israel and Iran are worrying; he has talked about continuing to levy sanctions on Iran as a condition for re-joining the deal they never reneged on, condemning Iranians to yet more suffering which will in turn only further anger them and destabilise the region, and has said aid to and support for the Israeli government shouldn’t be conditional on the actions it takes, therefore closing the door on the opportunity to pressure the state in the face of its egregious encroachment on and brutalization of Palestinians.
Blinken is part of the revolving door consensus; he’s worked for a consulting firm with potential ties to the defence industry and sees America as needing a strong global role on the world stage. He’s the establishment, conventional pick; but it could have been a whole lot worse. We haven’t got a Bush administration type like John Bolton, this is someone lighter handed, someone who supported the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear Deal, and who wanted to use the Trans Pacific Partnership to strengthen protections, standards, and workers rights.
Blinken has some record of starting to hear out and listen to progressives, and that’s welcome; he isn’t hostile to them and he won’t dismiss everything they say. Given Biden’s record on foreign affairs being the monstrosity that it is, we can take this as the least worst we could hope for.
US imperialism isn’t going anywhere, and the murderous consequences it directly and indirectly fosters will continue; domestic affairs will hopefully dull any chances for greater intervention or increased tensions with Russia, North Korea, China, etc, but the State Department will be under someone signed on to the delusion of American Exceptionalism, and that means the US will continue to be a threat to people in various nations around the world.
Progressives must not let up, the State Department won’t be on our side, and we have to fight to build a new foreign policy consensus from the ground up.