The Honorable Antony Blinken

United States Secretary of State

Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, has helped shape U.S. foreign policy to ensure it protects U.S. interests and delivers results for the American people over three decades and three presidential administrations. He served as Deputy Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2015 to 2017, and before that, as President Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor. During the first term of the Obama Administration, he served as National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden. During the Clinton Administration, he served as a member of the National Security Council (NSC) staff, including two years as the Senior Director for European Affairs, the president’s principal advisor on the countries of Europe, the European Union, and NATO. He also spent four years as President Clinton’s chief foreign policy speechwriter, and he led the NSC’s strategic planning team. From 1993 to 1994, he was a Special Assistant in what was then called the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs. Now he is proud to lead the department where he got his start nearly 30 years ago. Outside of government, he has worked in the private sector, civil society, and journalism. He is a founder of WestExec Advisors, an international strategic consulting firm focused on geopolitics and national security. He was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2001 to 2002. Before joining government, he practiced law in New York and Paris. He was also a reporter for The New Republic magazine and is the author of Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis. He attended grade school and high school in Paris, where he received a French baccalaureate degree with high honors, and he is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School.