Tony Blinken

Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American lawyer and diplomat currently serving as the 71st United States secretary of state.

Blinken was born on April 16, 1962, in Yonkers, New York, to Jewish parents.

His mother was Judith (née Frehm) Blinken and his father was Donald M. Blinken, who later served as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary.

His maternal grandparents were Hungarian Jews.

Blinken's uncle, Alan Blinken, served as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium.

His paternal grandfather, Maurice Henry Blinken, was an early backer of Israel who studied its economic viability, and his great-grandfather was Meir Blinken, a Yiddish writer.

Blinken attended the Dalton School in New York City until 1971.

He then moved to Paris with his mother and Samuel Pisar; his mother married Pisar after divorcing Donald Blinken.

In his confirmation hearing, Blinken recalled the story of his stepfather, Pisar, who had been the only Holocaust survivor of the 900 children in his school in Poland.

Pisar found refuge in a U.S. tank after making a break into the forest during a Nazi death march.

In Paris, Blinken attended École Jeannine Manuel.

From 1980 to 1984, Blinken attended Harvard University, where he majored in social studies.

He co-edited Harvard's daily student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, and wrote a number of articles on current affairs.

After graduating from the university, Blinken worked as an intern for The New Republic for about a year.

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.

Ally versus Ally was based on Blinken's undergraduate thesis in which he interviewed Henry Kissinger.

Blinken has held senior foreign policy positions in two administrations over two decades.

He earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1988 and practiced law in New York City and Paris.

Blinken worked with his father to raise funds for Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee in the 1988 United States presidential election.

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 member of the National Security Council (NSC) staff from 1994 to 2001.

From 1994 to 1998, Blinken was special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning and NSC senior director for speechwriting.

From 1999 to 2001, he was special assistant to the president and senior director for European and Canadian affairs.

He was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2001 to 2002.

In 2002, he was appointed staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he served in until 2008.

Blinken assisted then-Senator Joe Biden, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in formulating Biden's support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, with Blinken characterizing the vote to invade Iraq as "a vote for tough diplomacy".

In the years following the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, Blinken assisted Biden in formulating a proposal in the Senate to establish in Iraq three independent regions divided along ethnic or sectarian lines: a "Shiastan" in the south, a "Sunnistan" in the north, as well as Iraqi Kurdistan.

The proposal was overwhelmingly rejected at home, as well as in Iraq, where the prime minister opposed the partition plan.

He was also a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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.

Blinken supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He was a foreign policy advisor for Joe Biden's 2008 presidential campaign, before advising the Obama–Biden presidential transition.

In 2008, Blinken worked for Joe Biden's presidential campaign, and was a member of the Obama–Biden presidential transition team.

Blinken was previously national security advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden from 2009 to 2013.

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.

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.

From 2009 to 2013, Blinken was Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President.

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.