President-elect Joe Biden sees the world very differently than President Trump. He’s promised to reinvigorate diplomacy, and his approach to a range of pressing national security challenges – from Afghanistan to Iran to China – will likely diverge starkly from that of the current president. Biden has also begun to assemble his foreign policy team. State Department senior staffers and long-time Biden aides Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan will reportedly be nominated as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor (respectively), and Pentagon veteran Michelle Flournoy will be Biden's pick for Secretary of Defense.  Who are these people and what does their selection mean for Biden's approach to international relations? Do these choices augur a confrontation between Biden and his progressive critics on foreign policy? Vox national security writer Alex Ward joins host Mark Hannah for a conversation on the last two months of the Trump administration, and the future of American foreign policy under President-elect Biden.

 

Alex Ward is a staff writer for Vox on international security and defence, and co-host of Vox’s Worldly podcast on international affairs. He formerly was an associate director at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security and holds an MA from American University in International Relations. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexWardVox.