President Biden
Joe BidenHouse Committee Approves Bill to Set Up Reparation Committee Democrats to Offer Supreme Court Enlargement Bill Former Israeli Prime Minister Recommends Iran to Cool on Nuclear Threats On Thursday, he announced more than a dozen nominations for senior State Department positions and his first list of foreign ambassador, raising a significant number of foreign service officers to higher-level jobs.
Nominations indicate an effort by the President and the Secretary of State Anthony Blink
Antony Blinken Overnight Defense: Biden officially launches withdrawal plan for Afghanistan Evidence finds problems with DC Guard helicopter during June protests NATO will match US timetable to withdraw troops from Afghanistan Indirect talks with Iran on nuclear deal to resume on Thursday MORE rebuild trust with State Department staff by promoting career officials and experts in their foreign policy areas who were often removed during the former Trump administration.
The announcement is for seven senior State Department positions and nine ambassadorial positions in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Most candidates are career foreign service officers with extensive experience in their designated regions.
Candidates also present a significant number of women and men of color, who are also part of the Biden administration’s effort to increase diversity among senior staff and diplomats.
This includes Karen Erika Donfried, chair of the German Marshall Fund, a transatlantic policy think tank that will be deputy secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Donfried served as president and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
The president also nominated Barbara Leaf for assistant secretary of state for Middle East affairs. Leaf is currently the Special Assistant to the President and Director for Middle East and North Africa Affairs on the National Security Council.
Mary Catherine Phee is appointed Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs and a member of the Board of the African Development Foundation. Phee is a career member of the External Senior Service, which currently serves as the main Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation. She was the US Ambassador to South Sudan between 2015 and 2017.
Other candidates include Michele Jeanne Sison for Assistant Secretary of State for International Affairs; Anne A. Witkowsky, Deputy Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations and Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization; Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat for Director General of Foreign Service and Chair of the Foreign Service Council; and Gentry O. Smith for Deputy Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security.
For ambassadors, the President nominated:
- Larry Edward André, Jr. – in the Federal Republic of Somalia
- Elizabeth Moore Aubin – in the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
- Steven C. Bondy – in the Kingdom of Bahrain
- Maria E. Brewer – in the Kingdom of Lesotho
- Marc Evans Knapper – in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- Christopher John Lamora – in the Republic of Cameroon
- Tulinabo S. Mushingi – to the Republic of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe
- Michael Raynor – in the Republic of Senegal and to serve simultaneously and without further compensation as Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau
- Eugene S. Young – in the Republic of Congo