President Joe Biden could strain relations with some longtime U.S. allies unless he begins nominating ambassadors at a more rapid clip.
The former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman campaigned, in part, on a desire to improve the country’s standing on the world stage following four years of former President Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy. Biden and other Democrats claimed the 45th president was too harsh on traditional allies and showed disinterest in filling America’s traditional seat at the head of the Western table.
But Biden’s ambassador nomination process has been hampered by internal State Department politics, experts say, leaving the president without important diplomats in capitals around the globe as he prepares for his first trip abroad, a European jaunt in June.
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Biden not only has to fill the roughly 50 political ambassadorships vacated by Trump’s appointees, but he also has to rebuild a State Department gutted by the previous administration, according to retired Ambassador Ronald Neumann, head of the American Academy of Diplomacy.
But at the same time, he is running a selection process that is a snail’s pace compared to the last two occupants of the Oval Office. Former President Barack Obama nominated his first political ambassador in March 2009, and Trump was even faster, doing so during his transition period.
“It affects relationships if it goes on too long. I do not think it has yet affected relationships,” Neumann said.
Retired Ambassador Dennis Jett agreed, telling the Washington Examiner gaps are noticed by the host government and that embassies struggle when managed by interim leaders for lengthy periods of time.
“Like any organization, if the top person leaves and somebody temporarily takes over, then there’s limits to what that person can do and how much authority that person has, how he or she is viewed by others. All of that matters,” he said.
Under Trump, the State Department’s senior ranks were dominated by political appointees, so Biden’s priority has been employing those staff members, Neumann explained. Neumann was the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Bahrain, and Algeria under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
“They simply have not yet sorted out what they want to do about political appointees,” he said. “The real question is, are they going to put people in these jobs that really count, that are the big countries, who clearly have the credentials to go there?”
Of the country ambassador nominees Biden has announced, all nine are career diplomats. That does not include United Nations envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who is a career official as well. The countries covered so far are Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Cameroon, Congo, Lesotho, Senegal, Somalia, and Vietnam.
Nominating career diplomats has been perceived as an attempt to boost morale in the beleaguered department, with appointments skewing political during the Trump years. Neumann has seen positive changes but insisted on reserving judgment until after more hiring decisions had been publicized. In the past, the majority of the approximately 190 ambassadorships have been held by career officials.
“The very first announcements they made were people who had left the department they were bringing back,” Neumann said. “There was a little bit of stirring in the career ranks that said, ‘Well, wait a minute, what about those of us who stuck it out and stayed at our posts as we were asked to do?’ That I think is now largely going away because you’re now seeing a number of assistant secretary announcements coming out of the career ranks, as well as the ambassadors.”
Nominating ambassadors is a time-intensive process because of Senate gridlock and background checks. The security clearance process is more complicated for political appointees, especially wealthy fundraisers, if they have convoluted financial disclosures to make, according to Jett. Jett represented the United States in Mozambique and Peru under Clinton.
“I don’t know of any other country that openly sells ambassadorships in return for campaign contributions,” he said. “And it’s a thinly veiled form of corruption that all administrations have been engaged in.”
The Pennsylvania State University international affairs professor and author of American Ambassadors: The Past, Present, and Future of America’s Diplomats added of Biden, “If they do it right, they look at it and try and think about what they need for a particular country. On the other hand, since it is political, then they’re going to say, ‘Well, who do we have that we have to give an ambassadorship to?'”
For Biden, his promise that his administration will reflect the demographic makeup of the country adds another layer for him and his team, which includes presidential counselor Steve Ricchetti, White House presidential personnel office director Cathy Russell, and Katie Petrelius, a special assistant to the president for presidential personnel.
“It is a huge mistake to get so carried away with background that one forgets quality,” Neumann warned. “How many diverse donors do you have who are also competent? I don’t know the answer.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined this week to confirm reports Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Biden’s campaign co-chair, is being considered to become the next U.S. ambassador to India. She also would not outline a timeline for nominating a British envoy. Garcetti was first reported by Axios.
“I don’t have any personnel announcements or assessments to make here from the podium. But, hopefully, we’ll have some more formal announcements on ambassadors soon,” she said.
David Cohen, the Comcast executive and lobbyist behind Biden’s first 2020 presidential fundraiser, will reportedly be named as the U.S. ambassador to Canada, according to the Washington Post. Ken Salazar, one of Obama’s interior secretaries, is rumored to be in the running for Mexico.
Career diplomats Nicholas Burns and Thomas Nides are expected to be nominated as ambassadors to China and Israel, respectively, while Denise Bauer, who led a pro-Biden women’s group during the campaign, is being floated for the French post.
For the three pivotal Brussels positions, career diplomat Mark Gitenstein is speculated to become the next European Union ambassador and former Biden adviser Julie Smith his counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Developer and donor Michael Adler is being weighed for Belgium, the Washington Post reported.
More deeply political appointees Biden is reportedly considering include Cindy McCain, the widow of 2008 Republican presidential nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain, and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel for ambassador to the U.N.’s World Food Program and Japan. Former Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Jeff Flake of Arizona have also been circulated for jobs.
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Jett specifically queried McCain’s credentials for the multilateral organization, though admitted none of Biden’s candidates seemed “outrageously unqualified.”
“I’d have to look and see what her credentials are and how much experience she has,” he said of McCain.
