Tony Blinken

Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962)[1][2][2] is an American government official who served as United States Deputy Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017 and Deputy National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2015 under President Barack Obama. He previously served as a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Democratic Staff Director of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (2002–2008), and a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition, active from November 2008 to January 2009, among other positions.

Tony Blinken
18th United States Deputy Secretary of State
In office
January 9, 2015 – January 20, 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byWendy Sherman (acting)
Succeeded byJohn Sullivan
Deputy National Security Advisor
In office
January 20, 2013 – January 9, 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byDenis McDonough
Succeeded byAvril Haines
National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States
In office
January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2013
Vice PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byJohn P. Hannah
Succeeded byJake Sullivan
Personal details
Born
Antony John Blinken

(1962-04-16) April 16, 1962
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Evan Ryan
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Columbia University (JD)

From 2009 to 2013 Blinken served as Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President. From 2002 to 2008 he served as the Democratic Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2001 to 2002 Blinken was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. During the Clinton Administration, Blinken served in the State Department and in senior positions on the National Security Council Staff.[3]

On November 7, 2014, President Obama announced that he would nominate Blinken for the Deputy Secretary post, replacing the retiring William Joseph Burns.[4] On December 16, 2014 Blinken was confirmed as Deputy Secretary of State by the Senate by a vote of 55 to 38.[5] He is now a Global Affairs Analyst for CNN.[6]

Early life

Blinken was born to Jewish parents, Judith and Donald M. Blinken. He attended the Dalton School in New York City until 1971, when he moved to Paris, France, where he attended Ecole Jeanine Manuel[7]. He moved with his divorced mother and her new husband, lawyer Samuel Pisar, who had survived both the Auschwitz and Dachau camps in the Holocaust.[3]

He attended Harvard University, where he edited the daily student newspaper and co-edited the weekly art magazine. After earning his bachelor's degree, Blinken reported for The New Republic.[8] He earned his J.D. degree at Columbia Law School. After graduation, he practiced law in New York City and Paris.[8] During the 1988 presidential campaign, Blinken worked with his father in fundraisers for Michael Dukakis.[3]

Career
Blinken, standing in blue shirt in back of room, during the Osama Bin Laden raid

Blinken has held senior foreign policy positions in two administrations over two decades. He served on the United States National Security Council staff at the White House from 1994 to 2001.[9] From 1994 through 1998 Blinken was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning and NSC Senior Director for Speechwriting.[9] From 1999 to 2001 he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Canadian Affairs.[10]

In 2002 Blinken was appointed Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he served in until 2008.[9] He was also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 2008, Blinken worked for the presidential campaign of Joe Biden,[3] and was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition team.[9][11]

From 2009 to 2013 he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President. In this position he also helped craft U.S. policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Iranian nuclear program.[12][13]

In 2017, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategic advising firm, with Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda.[14][15] WestExec's client work includes analyzing potential acquisitions and investments for geopolitical risk, and offering insight on regulatory matters, policy changes in the U.S. and key international markets, industry-specific and macroeconomic trends, political intelligence.[16] WestExec also helps clients expand market access in China "while safeguarding against trade tensions between the U.S. and China".[16] WestExec's clients have included Google's Jigsaw, Israeli artificial-intelligence company Windward, and "“Fortune 100 types.”[17] In an interview with The Intercept, Flournoy explained WestExec seeks to employ "people recently coming out of government" with "current knowledge, expertise, contacts, networks".[18]

Blinken is also a partner of private equity firm Pine Island Capital Partners.[19] According to the firm's website, Blinken works on the D.C. partners team, which works "in tandem with the investment team to source deals, conduct analyses, win bids, close transactions, and directly advise" the firm's portfolio companies.[20] Pine Island's chairman is John Thain, the final chairman of Merrill Lynch before its sale to Bank of America.[20] Blinken recused himself from Pine Island Capital Partners in 2020 to serve as a senior foreign policy advisor with the Biden campaign.[21]

Blinken meets with Sesame Street's character Grover to talk about refugees at the United Nations in New York City, 2016.

Blinken is a foreign policy advisor for Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.[22] On June 17, 2020, Blinken said that Biden "would not tie military assistance to Israel to things like annexation or other decisions by the Israeli government with which we might disagree."[23]

Bibliography
  • Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis (Praeger, 1987).[3][9]

Personal life

Blinken, who is Jewish,[3] married Evan Ryan in a bi-denominational ceremony officiated by a rabbi and priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.[24]

gollark: How emailful. I've heard mailserver hosting is kind of horrible because the big providers will arbitrarily flag you as spam, is this accurate?
gollark: Ah, yes, it does ask for an account, how unhelpful of them.
gollark: It looks like they link some datasets too.
gollark: You could try contacting the authors for more information. They mentioned that.
gollark: Or it randomly starts using all my CPU to compile some sort of C module.

References
  1. "Antony Blinken steps into the spotlight with Obama administration role". Washington Post. September 15, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  2. "Antony "Tony" Blinken". Jewish Virtual Library. 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  3. Horowitz, Jason (September 20, 2013). "Antony Blinken steps into the spotlight with Obama administration role". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  4. "Obama nominates his adviser Tony Blinken as Deputy Secretary of State". Reuters. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  5. "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 113th Congress - 2nd Session". senate.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  6. "Tony Blinken - Spring 2017 Resident Fellow". University of Chicago Institute of Politics. 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  7. Bezioua, Céline. "Ecole Jeannine Manuel - Venue d'Antony Blinken à l'école". www.ecolejeanninemanuel.org (in French). Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  8. Antony Blinken, Deputy National Security Advisor Archived February 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Sara Sorcher, National Journal, July 17, 2013
  9. "President Obama Nominates Antony Blinken for Deputy Secretary of State". Foreign Policy News. November 8, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  10. Robert Gallucci (2009). Instruments and Institutions of American Purpose. United States: Aspen Institute. p. 112. ISBN 9780898435016. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  11. Gabe LaMonica (December 17, 2014). "Blinken confirmed by Senate as Kerry's deputy at State". CNN. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  12. "Senate Confirms Antony "Tony" Blinken '88 as Secretary of State". Columbia Law. December 17, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  13. David E. Sanger (November 7, 2014). "Obama Makes His Choice for No. 2 Post at State Department". The New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  14. "Michèle Flournoy". WestExec Advisors. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  15. "Our Team". WestExec Advisors. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  16. "WestExec Advisors | Strategic Advisory Firm in DC". WestExec Advisors. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  17. "How Biden's Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich". The American Prospect. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  18. "Former Obama Officials Help Silicon Valley Pitch the Pentagon for Lucrative Defense Contracts". The Intercept. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  19. "Antony Blinken". Pine Island Capital Partners. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  20. "Team". Pine Island Capital Partners. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  21. https://prospect.org/world/how-biden-foreign-policy-team-got-rich/
  22. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/11/joe-biden-tries-adapt-his-traditional-foreign-policy-new-era/
  23. "Biden blasts BDS: Why it matters". The Jerusalem Post. June 21, 2020.
  24. "WEDDINGS; Evan Ryan, Antony Blinken". The New York Times. March 3, 2002. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
Political offices
Preceded by
Wendy Sherman
Acting		 United States Deputy Secretary of State
2015–2017		 Succeeded by
John Sullivan
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