Official White House Photo by David Lienemann
With Blinken as secretary of state, we’re likely to see a return to an old guard of Democratic foreign policy.
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 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.
1. After Serving Obama, He Cashed In
Blinken launched WestExec Advisors with fellow Obama national-security chiefs in 2018. WestExec’s very name—a reference to the 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 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.
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 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 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 walked it back, and Blinken later apologized to the Muslim and Arab American community. While some progressive foreign-policy experts have 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 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 notes on A1 that Blinken plays in a band, but neglects to mention his recent work for corporate and defense clients.
