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An administrative arm of the U.S. executive branch, the State Department is considered among the most powerful and prestigious executive agencies
United States Department of State (DOS)
or simply the ‘State Department’
is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nations, its primary duties are advising the U.S. president on international relations, administering diplomatic missions, negotiating international treaties and agreements, and representing the U.S. at the United Nations.[5] The department is headquartered in the Harry S Truman Building, a few blocks from the White House, in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.; "Foggy Bottom" is thus sometimes used as a metonym.
Established in 1789 as the first administrative arm of the U.S. executive branch,
the State Department is considered among the most powerful and prestigious executive agencies.[6]
It is headed by the U.S. secretary of state, who reports directly to the U.S. president and is a member of the Cabinet. Analogous to a foreign minister, the secretary of state serves as the federal government's chief diplomat and representative abroad, and is the first Cabinet official in the order of precedence and in the presidential line of succession. The position is currently held by Antony Blinken, who was appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 26, 2021, by a vote of 78–22.[7]
As of 2019, the State Department maintains 273 diplomatic posts worldwide, second only to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.[8] It also manages the U.S. Foreign Service, provides diplomatic training to U.S. officials and military personnel, exercises partial jurisdiction over immigration, and provides various services to Americans, such as issuing passports and visas, posting foreign travel advisories, and advancing commercial ties abroad. The department administers the oldest U.S. civilian intelligence agency, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and maintains a law enforcement arm, the Diplomatic Security Service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_State
Antony John Blinken
(born April 16, 1962) is an American lawyer and diplomat currently serving as the 71st 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] Blinken was previously national security advisor to then-vice president Joe Biden from 2009 to 2013.
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 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. 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. Blinken returned to government first as a foreign policy advisor for Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, then as Biden's pick for secretary of state, a position the Senate confirmed him for on January 26, 2021.
Early life and education
Blinken was born on April 16, 1962, in Yonkers, New York, to Jewish parents, Judith (Frehm) and Donald M. Blinken, who later served as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary.[5][6][7] His maternal grandparents were Hungarian Jews.[8] Blinken's uncle, Alan Blinken, served as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium.[9][10] His paternal grandfather, Maurice Henry Blinken, was an early backer of Israel who studied its economic viability,[11] and his great-grandfather was Meir Blinken, a Yiddish writer.[12]
Blinken attended Dalton School in New York City until 1971.[6] He then moved to Paris with his mother Judith and Samuel Pisar, whom she married following her divorce from Donald Blinken. In his confirmation hearing, Blinken told the story of his stepfather, who was the only Holocaust survivor of the 900 children of his school in Poland. Pisar found refuge in a U.S. tank after making a break into the forest during a Nazi death march.[13][14] In Paris, Blinken attended École Jeannine Manuel.[15]
WestExec Advisors
In 2017, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategy advising firm, with Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda.[48][49]
WestExec's clients have included:
GOOGLE’s Jigsaw
ISRAELI artificial-INTELLIGENCE company Windward
SURVEILLANCE DRONE MANUFACTURER Shield AI, which signed a $7.2 million contract with the * * * * * A I R * * * F O R C E * * * * [50]
"Fortune 100 types".[51]
According to Foreign Policy, the firm's clientele includes "the defense industry, private equity firms, and hedge funds".[52]
Blinken received almost $1.2 million in compensation from WestExec.[53]
In an interview with The Intercept, Flournoy described WestExec's role as facilitating
relationships between Silicon Valley firms and the Department of Defense and law enforcement;[54]
Flournoy and others compared WestExec to Kissinger Associates.[54][55]
Personal life
Blinken is Jewish.[155] In 2002, Blinken and Evan Ryan were married in an interfaith ceremony officiated by a rabbi and a priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.[20][5] They have two children.[156] Blinken is fluent in French.[157] He plays the guitar and has three songs available on Spotify by the alias Ablinken[158] (pronounced "Abe Lincoln").[159] Blinken gave a cover performance of "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters in September 2023 to launch the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative.[160]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Blinken
Victoria Jane Nuland
(born July 1, 1961) also known as Toria Nuland[2] is an American diplomat currently serving as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs since 2021. A former member of the US Foreign Service, she served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2013 to 2017 and the 18th U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2005 to 2008.[3][4] Since July 2023, Nuland has served as acting Deputy Secretary of State following the retirement of Wendy Sherman.[5]
Nuland held the rank of career ambassador, the highest diplomatic rank in the U.S. Foreign Service.[6] She is the former CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), serving from January 2018 until early 2019, and is also the Brady-Johnson distinguished practitioner in grand strategy at Yale University and a member of the board of the National Endowment for Democracy. She served as a nonresident fellow in the Brookings Institution's[7] foreign policy program and senior counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group.[8]
Early life and education
Nuland was born in 1961 to Sherwin B. Nuland, a surgeon born to Eastern European Jewish immigrants with the last name Nudelman,[9] and a Christian British native mother, Rhona McKhann, née Goulston.[10] She graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1979.[11] She has two younger half-siblings, Amelia and William.[12] She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Brown University in 1983, where she studied Russian literature, political science, and history.[13]
Clinton administration
From 1993 to 1996, during Bill Clinton's presidency, Nuland was chief of staff to deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott before moving on to serve as deputy director for former Soviet Union affairs.[14]
Bush administration
From 2003 to 2005, Nuland served as the principal deputy foreign policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, exercising an influential role during the Iraq War.[citation needed] From 2005 to 2008, during President George W. Bush's second term, Nuland served as U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, where she concentrated on mobilizing European support for the NATO intervention in Afghanistan.[15]
Obama administration
In the summer of 2011, Nuland became special envoy for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe[16] and then became State Department spokesperson.[17]
In May 2013, Nuland was nominated to act as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs[18] and was sworn in on September 18, 2013.[19] In her role as assistant secretary, she managed diplomatic relations with fifty countries in Europe and Eurasia, as well as with NATO, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Biden administration
On January 5, 2021, it was reported that President-elect Joe Biden would nominate Nuland to serve as under secretary of state for political affairs under Antony Blinken, who had been nominated to serve as secretary of state.[4] Hearings on Nuland's nomination were held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 15, 2021. The committee favorably reported Nuland's nomination on April 21, 2021. On April 29, 2021, her nomination was confirmed unanimously by the Senate by voice vote, and she started her work as under secretary of state on May 3, 2021.[39]
Personal life
Nuland's husband, Robert Kagan, is a historian, foreign policy commentator at the Brookings Institution, and co-founder in 1998 of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC).[46] She has two children.[47]
