Meet The Progressives Joe Biden Could Put In Key Foreign Policy Jobs

LOADING ERROR LOADING President-elect Joe Biden has now tapped his most important deputies on foreign policy: Tony Blinken for the State Department, Lloyd Austin for the Pentagon, Avril Haines as his director of national intelligence, and Jake Sullivan as his national security adviser at the White House. The goal is twofold: to ensure critical posts are filled with qualified people who have Washington’s respect but are willing to challenge national security orthodoxy, and to make it more likely powerful government jobs go to people who represent modern America more than the historic foreign policy establishment ― breaking with stereotypes like the idea of a “pale, male and Yale” State Department. Most of the suggested appointees fall into one of three categories: figures who have previously worked in government but could take on bigger roles; people who have built influence in Congress, where progressives have made significant headway on foreign policy; and prominent experts who haven’t yet served as U.S. officials. The activists behind the push want Biden’s circle to seize the moment to enact change ― as they take their own chance to push back against the common argument that progressives spend too much time condemning the foreign policy status quo without outlining what to do differently.