Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st and current United States secretary of state. He previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2015 and Deputy Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017 under President Barack Obama.[1]
During the Clinton administration, Blinken served in the State Department and in senior positions on the National Security Council from 1994 to 2001. He was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2001 to 2002. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic Staff Director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008.[2] He was a foreign policy advisor for Joe Biden's unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, before advising the Obama–Biden presidential transition.
From 2009 to 2013, Blinken served as Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President. He later served as Deputy National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2015 and Deputy Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017. During his tenure in the Obama administration, he helped craft U.S. policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran.[3][4] After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm.
Early life and education
Blinken was born on April 16, 1962, in Yonkers, New York, to Jewish parents, Judith (Frehm) and Donald M. Blinken, the former United States Ambassador to Hungary.[5][6][7] His maternal grandparents were Hungarian Jews.[8] Blinken's uncle, Alan Blinken, served as the American ambassador to Belgium.[9][10] His paternal grandfather, Maurice Henry Blinken was an early backer of Israel who helped establish the American Palestine Institute, and commissioned an economic feasibility study which argued that an independent Jewish state was economically viable there.[11]
Blinken attended the Dalton School in New York City until 1971.[6] He then moved to Paris with his mother Judith and attorney Samuel Pisar, whom she married following her divorce from Donald. Pisar was the only Holocaust survivor of the 900 children of his Polish school, who had found refuge in a US tank after making a break into the forest from a Nazi death march.[12] In Paris, he attended École Jeannine Manuel.[13]
Blinken attended Harvard University from 1980 to 1984,[14] where he majored in social studies and co-edited the weekly art magazine of The Harvard Crimson.[5][15][16] Blinken also wrote a number of articles on current affairs for the Crimson.[17][14] Blinken worked as an intern for The New Republic for around a year after graduating from Harvard.[6][14] He entered Columbia Law School in 1985 and earned his J.D. in 1988.[18][19] After graduation, he practiced law in New York City and Paris.[20] Blinken worked with his father Donald to raise funds for Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee in the 1988 United States presidential election.[5]
In his monograph Ally versus Ally: America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis (1987), Blinken argued that exerting diplomatic pressure on the Soviet Union during the Siberian pipeline crisis was less significant for American interests than maintaining strong relations between the United States and Europe.[21] Ally versus Ally was based on Blinken's undergraduate thesis.[15]
Early career
Secretary of State
Foreign policy positions
Personal life
In 2002, Blinken married Evan Ryan in a bi-denominational ceremony officiated by a rabbi and priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.[18][5] He is fluent in French.[96] He plays guitar and has three songs available on Spotify by the alias ABlinken[97] (pronounced like "Abe Lincoln").[98] Blinken is Jewish.[99]
