U.S. President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday his foreign policy leadership team, including Antony Blinken, who briefly served as deputy secretary of state during the second Obama administration.
Biden also has tapped Jake Sullivan to be his administration's national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Sullivan served as deputy assistant to Obama as well as a senior policy adviser to 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Thomas-Greenfield was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under Obama as well as the top human resources officer at the State Department.
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Furthermore, Biden has chosen Cuban-American lawyer Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary for homeland security, to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), becoming the first foreign-born leader of the sprawling department since its creation after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Biden also announced Monday that former Massachusetts senator, Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, and secretary of state during the second Obama administration, John Kerry, would be his special envoy for the climate.
Blinken and Sullivan together have aided Biden in formulating a strategy that will supposedly include quick outreach to global allies to collaborate on significant global problems such as the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent economic depression it catalyzed.
Biden, who is expected to name more Cabinet appointees later this week, has pledged to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, return to the Paris climate accord, abandon plans to leave the World Health Organization (WHO), and end a rule banning U.S. aid to groups that discuss abortion.
Assembling his cabinet amidst an unprecedented global health crisis, as well as confronting an outgoing President Trump who refuses to concede and is blocking the U.S. government from providing the transitional support necessary for a president-elect, Biden has been working from his home state of Delaware and hopes to reverse many of Trump's foreign policy decisions quickly after assuming office.