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by Abdul Halim Saad, BA Malaya, Dip Politics LSE, MA Peace Studies Bradford
A look at the professional experiences and academic backgrounds of the key members of President Joe Biden’s administration is necessary to understand the direction, politics and strategy of the US as the world’s most powerful country and the only remaining superpower.
President
Joe Biden, 78, is the 46th US president and a seasoned politician for 50 years. Biden became a senator in 1972 at 29, re-elected 6 times becoming the longest serving senator in US history and the US vice president in Obama administration for 2 terms or 8 years from 2009 to 2017. Biden has a BA from Delaware University and a law degree JD from Syracuse University.
Vice President
Kamala Harris, 56, is a politician, a lawyer, a US senator from California since 2017 and attorney general of California in 2020. Harris is the 49th, first woman, first black and first Asian-American US vice president in US history and one of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Harris has a BA in politics from Howard University and a law degree JD from the University of California Berkeley.
Chief of Staff
Ron Klain, 59, is the most powerful and influential person in the White House due to proximity with the president and as the president’s closest advisor. Klain who was Biden’s chief of staff in the Obama administration has a BA from Georgetown University and a law degree JD from Harvard University.
Secretary of State
Anthony Blinken, 58, is a career diplomat with an extensive foreign policy credentials, former US ambassador to Belgium, national security advisor to the president and deputy secretary of state under Obama administration. Blinken has a BA from Harvard University and a law degree JD from Columbia University.
National Security Advisor
Jake Sullivan, 43, was deputy chief of staff of the State Department under Hillary Clinton and a visiting professor at Yale University. Sullivan has a BA in international politics from Yale University, MPhil in international relations from Oxford University and a law degree JD also from Yale University.
Director of National Intelligence
Avril Haines, 51, is the first woman director of national intelligence, former deputy national security adviser in Obama years and deputy director of the CIA. Haines has a BA in physics from Chicago University and a law degree JD from Georgetown University.
Attorney General
Merrick Garland 68, was a judge in US supreme court, assistant attorney and deputy attorney general in the Justice Department. Garland is the first judge to be appointed as attorney general and has a BA and a law degree JD from Harvard University.
Director of the National Economic Council
Brian Deese, 43, is an economist and former political advisor to Barack Obama, former director of the Office of Management and Budget and was the acting director of the National Economic Council. Deese has a BA from Middlebury University and a law degree JD from Yale University.
Director, US Agency for International Development
Samantha Power, 50 , is an academic, author, a member of the Obama’s State Department and US Ambassador to the UN from 2013 to 2017, a former Yugoslav war correspendent and senior adviser to Senator Barack Obama. Power has a BA from Yale University and a law degree JD from Harvard University.
Secretary of Homeland Security
Alejandro Mayorkas, 61, born in Cuba, was deputy secretary of homeland security during the Obama administration and attorney for California. Mayorkas has a BA from University of California Berkeley and a law degree JD from Loyola University.
US Trade Representative
Katherine Tai, 45, is an attorney, former chief trade counsel at the US Senate, a China expert and previously taught law at Sun Yet Sen University, Taiwan. Tai has a BA from Yale and a law degree JD from Harvard University.
US Climate Envoy
John Kerry, 77, is an attorney, diplomat, war veteran, senator and a former Secretary of State in the Obama years. Kerry has a BA in political science from Yale University and a law degree JD from Boston University.
Secretary of Commerce
Gina Raimondo, 50, is a politician, venture capitaiist and the first woman Governor of Rhode Island since 2015. Raimondo has a BA from Harvard University, MA,and MPhil from Oxford University and a law degree JD from Yale University.
Secretary of Energy
Jennifer Granhol, 60, is a politician, lawyer, educator, author, attorney general of Michigan (1999 – 2003) and the first woman Governor of Michigan (2003-2011).. Granholm has a BA in political science from the University of California Berkeley and a law degree JD from Harvard University.
Counselor to the President
Steve Ricchetti (age n.a.) was vice president Biden’s counselor and chairman of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and chief of staff to the Vice President of the United States (2013–2017). Ricchetti has a BA from Miami University and a law degree JD from George Mason University.
Secretary of the Interior
Debra Haaland, 50,is a politician, a US represetative from New Mexico and the first Native American women to be appointed as Secretary of the Interior in US history. Haaland has a BA from the University of New Mexico and a law degree JD from the same university.
Director of the CIA
William Burns, 64, is a career diplomat of 33 years, former deputy secretary of state, former US ambassador to Russia and Jordan and the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Burns has a BA from La Salle University, MPhil and DPhil both from Oxford University.
Secretary of Defence
Lloyd Austin, 67, is a 4-star general, former commander of US Central Command, vice chief of staff of the US army and commander of the US Iraq operation. Austin is the first Black defence secretary in US history and has a BSc from West Point, MA from Auburn University and another MA in business administration from Webster University.
Ambassador to the UN
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, 68, is a diplomat with 35 years in foreign service, former assistant secretary for African affairs in the State Department and had foreign postings in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, Gambia and ambassador to Liberia. Thomas-Greenfield taught politics at Bucknell University and has a BA from Louisiana University and MA in public administration from Wisconsin University.
Secretary of the Treasury
Janet Yellen, 74, is the first woman in history to serve as treasury secretary and also the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. Yellen was a professor at the University of California Berkeley and graduated with BA in economics from Brown University and PhD in economics from Yale University.
Secretary of Transportation
Peter Buttigieg, 45, is a politician, former US navy intelligence officer, Afghanistan war veteran and mayor of South Bend from 2012 to 2020. Buttigieg has a BA from Harvard University and another BA from Oxford University.
Chair, Council of Economic Advisors
Cecilia Rouse, 60, is an economist and dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and also a member of the Council during the Obama administration. Rouse has a BA, MA and PhD from Harvard University and all in economics.
Deputy Director Office of Legistlative Affairs
Reema Dodin (age n.a.) is a political advisor, author and the first highest ranking Palestinian-American person to serve in the Executive Office of the US President. Dodin has BA in political science from University of California Berkeley and a law degree JD from the University of Illinois.
White House Press Secretary
Jennifer Psaki, 42, was the White House communication director during Obama administration (2015-2017), former journalist with the CNN and now the chief media spoksman for the president which has an important link with the media. Psaki has a BA in English from Williams and Mary College.
First Lady
Jill Biden, 69, the president’s wife, was a college educator, author and US Second Lady from 2009–2017 when Biden was vice president. Jill Biden has a BA in english from Delaware University, a double MA one from West Chester University and other from Vellanova University (both in education) and hD in education from Delaware University.
There are some important points in looking at Biden’s White House team:
- Majority are non-white – 13 whites, 6 blacks 4 latinos 3 asians and 1 native-American.
- First women vice president in US history.
- Mostly with double degrees from Ivy League universities.
- Mostly law graduates of Harvard, Yale, Stanford or the University of California Berkeley.
- Some are former professors at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and University of California Berkeley.
- Having degrees in international politics from Yale, Georgetown, Columbia or Oxford.
- Most are veterans of Obama and Clinton administrations.
- More than half or 13 cabinet membrs are women.
- A military 4-star general and 3 war-veterans in the cabinet.
- Four diplomats with wide global experiences.
- All women White House comminication team (An openly gay person in the cabinet.
- A racial mix of english-, jewish-. Irish-, african-, italian-, german-, canadian-, indian-, chinese-, cuban-, jamaican-, puertorican-, palestinian- and native-American.
- Biden’s cabinet member average age is 59 years compared to Donald Trump’s average age of 62 years.
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