The transition of the head of states following the US presidential elections 2020 is gradually moving
towards its logical conclusion. US General Services Administration ascertained on November 23 that
President-elect Joe Biden is the “apparent winner” of the November 3 election, clearing the way for the
start of the transition from President Donald Trump’s administration and allowing Biden to coordinate
with federal agencies and start receiving presidential briefings.
Thus, president-elect Joe Biden is finally gearing up to take up the mantle of the 46th president of the
USA on January 20, 2021. He has commenced cobbling together his team for foreign policy and national
security. The bonhomie and camaraderie between President Barack Obama and his Vice, Joe Biden was
exemplary. No wonder that Obama canvassed vigorously for Joe Biden’s election campaign and
delivered.
Based on his experience as the Veep, Biden is picking up veterans of the Obama administration, since
they were tried and tested in the 2009-2017 era. Of course, his seven terms as a United States senator
for Delaware from 1973-2009, where he had tremendous exposure in the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, eventually serving as its Chairman adding to the rich experience. He also chaired the Senate
Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995, dealing with drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties
issues; which led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence
Against Women Act; and he oversaw six US Supreme Court confirmation hearings, thus he is no babe in
the woods in either exterior maneuver or internal security issues.
Based on his experience as the Veep, Biden is picking up veterans of the Obama administration, since they were tried and tested in the 2009-2017 era
The return to the Obama administration veterans for foreign policy and national security posts has been
labeled as “America is back”, ditching the “America First” policy, which may have been popular at home
but disparaged many of USA’s international allies. It had raised the hackles of career diplomats and
other veteran government officials.
The names picked out include John Kerry, 2004 Presidential Candidate and former US Secretary of State
(replacing Hillary Clinton in 2013) as Biden’s climate change envoy. As Secretary of State, Kerry initiated
the 2013-2014 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and negotiated landmark agreements restricting the
nuclear program of Iran, including the 2013 Joint Plan of Action and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action. In 2015, Kerry signed the Paris Agreement on climate change on behalf of the United States.
That is another story that as part of his “America First” policy, President Donald Trump announced that
the US would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and completed the withdrawal
process on November 4, 2020, one day after the 2020 US presidential elections. Joe Biden has
expressed his administration’s intent to rejoin the Paris Agreement.
Biden’s choices also reflect his promise to tap on America’s ethnic diversity, free of gender bias. Kamala
Devi Harris, the first woman Vice President-elect, is of Jamaican and Indian origin. Antony Blinken,
whose parents escaped during the holocaust, is likely to be secretary of state, lawyer Alejandro
Mayorkas—a Cuban-American lawyer will be homeland security secretary—who will be the first Latino
to lead Homeland Security, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a black woman, will be ambassador to the United
Nations. Avril Haines, a former deputy director of the CIA, will be nominated as director of national
intelligence, the first woman to hold that post. Thomas-Greenfield previously served in high-level State
Department positions and Mayorkas was a deputy Homeland Security secretary under Obama, while
Jake Sullivan will be the national security advisor.
Interestingly, the team is also a mix of experience, age, ethnic background and youth. While Kerry is a
septuagenarian like the president elect, Sullivan, at 43 will be one of the youngest national security
advisers in history. Blinken, 58, served as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser
during the Obama administration and has close ties with Biden. He will have his work cut-out, starting under the shadow of pall in the State Department, in the wake of Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo’s post
elections moves to incorporate foreign policy changes.
Mayorkas, 61 was visibly moved by his nomination because he had migrated to the US at a very young age and feels obliged that the country, which provided his family a refuge, has now been nominated to look after homeland security.
Another septuagenarian Janet Yellen is tipped to become the next Treasury Secretary, she will be the first woman to run the Treasury Department, and also the first person ever to hold the top three economic positions in American government. Simultaneously, Michèle Angélique Flournoy is being rumored to get the post of Defense Secretary. She is a hawk who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy under President Bill Clinton and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under President Barack Obama, as well as a principal advisor to US Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Leon Panetta from February 2009 to February 2012. While serving in the Obama administration, Flournoy crafted the administration's policy of counter-insurgency in Afghanistan and helped persuade President Obama to intervene militarily in Libya. When the US Senate confirmed her nomination on February 9, 2009, she was at the time the highest-ranking woman at the Pentagon in the department's history. In her article: "How to Prevent a War in Asia: The Erosion of American Deterrence Raises the Risk of Chinese Miscalculation" published in Foreign Affairs, June 18, 2020, Flournoy argued the US must invest in new military technologies, such as prototypes for artificial intelligence, as well as more long range missiles, escalate US troop deployment to the South China Sea area and step-up roving war games in Asia to show China the US has the modern technology, might and will to deter Chinese aggression. More appointments will follow.