Antony Blinken

Antony Blinken
Born	16 April 1962 (aged 61) Yonkers, New York, United States
Political orientation	Neoconservatism
Political party	Democratic

Antony John Blinken (born 16 April 1962) is a Statesian politician and the current U.S. Secretary of State. He described China as the "most serious long-term challenger to the international order."

Blinken supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2011 assault on Libya.

Blinken co-founded the company WestExec Advisors in 2017, which is involved in helping "Silicon Valley start-ups to land contracts at the Pentagon" and enabling the Department of Defense in accessing cutting-edge commercial technology to adapt it to military purposes, among other activities relating to the military-industrial complex.

In the 1980s, Blinken interviewed Henry Kissinger for his Harvard senior thesis about the trans-Siberian pipeline, which the U.S. attempted to sabotage by various unilateral economic means in the early 1980s to prevent the pipeline's construction between Russia and Western Europe. Regarding the pipeline issue, Blinken wrote the 1987 book Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis in which he explores the inherent and persistent fractures in the Western alliance which stem from the fundamental difference between US and European economic interests in trading with the Eastern Bloc, which he explains are particularly inflamed in peacetime and by megaprojects, such as gas pipelines, and that future megaprojects are likely to raise continued inner tensions among the Western allies.

Disinformation

Blinken claimed that the Soviet Union covered up the 1941 Babi Yar massacre, the largest single massacre of Jews during World War II, in which German Nazis and Ukrainian Nazi collaborators murdered more than 34,000 Jews as well as tens of thousands of Roma and Communists. In reality, while Soviet media didn't place as much emphasis on the Jewish aspect of Babi Yar as it should have, the Soviets did liberate Babi Yar in 1943 and they did try 15 German policemen for the crime in 1946.

Views

United States hegemony

In various writings, speeches, and interviews throughout his life, Blinken has expressed support for a liberal world order under US leadership. He has explained that in his view, any form of order is better than a power vacuum which he sees as "likely to be filled by bad things before it's filled by good things," but that the US-led "rules-based international order" and a "profoundly liberal" order are preferential to alternatives, maintaining this view both during the time of the Soviet Union and now in regard to US-China relations.

Summing up his view on a "profoundly liberal" US-built world order and contrasting it with his view of China, Blinken stated in a 2022 interview:

I believe China wants a world order, which is good because order is usually better than the alternative. But the profound difference is this: The order that we’ve sought to build, very imperfectly, but that we sought to build is profoundly liberal in nature; the order that China seeks is illiberal. We disagree and it’s as basic and fundamental as that. And so to the extent that China’s taking steps that would undermine the liberal, in the broader sense of the term, nature of the order, we’re going to oppose that. And again, we’ve been clear about that; there’s no secret to it.

In a 1982 article responding to Noam Chomsky's book Towards a New Cold War, Blinken disagreed with the characterization of the U.S. as a belligerent and oppressive state, writing: "You’ve got to wonder if the United States is really the belligerent and oppressive state that Chomsky would have us believe. The answer, at least compared to other nations, is unequivocally no." In 2023 he expressed a similar view on the relative benevolence of U.S. hegemony compared to alternatives, stating that in the absence of "American leadership" in the world, "either someone else is going to do it, and probably not in a way that reflects our interests or values; or maybe just as bad, no one does it, and then you have a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by bad things before it’s filled by good things." He continued, stating that it is his "profound conviction" that "no country on Earth has a greater ability to mobilize others in positive collective action than the United States."

Blinken has expressed commitment to defending the so-called "rules-based international order", noting in a 2022 speech that China is "the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it." While claiming that the U.S. does not seek conflict, nor a New Cold War, nor seek to block China's role as a major power, Blinken stated "we cannot rely on Beijing to change its trajectory. So we will shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open, inclusive international system." In the same speech, he touted the strengthening of the "Quad" security dialogues between the U.S., Australia, Japan, and India, emphasized US-ASEAN ties, and the AUKUS security partnership, claiming it as evidence of "enhancing peace and stability" in the Indo-Pacific.

This view of Blinken's for the need to "shape the strategic environment around Beijing" was reiterated in an interview with Foreign Affairs in 2022. Connecting the issue of US-China relations with the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian conflict, a proxy conflict between NATO and the Russian Federation, Blinken said it is important that China take the right "lessons" from the US-led international support for Ukraine, while noting that the U.S. is also making sure its building up its defenses and deterrence.

Support for Israel

Antony Blinken at a senate hearing on October 31, 2023 regarding a budget request for aid to Israel. Behind him, activists hold up red-painted hands in protest of U.S. support for Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.

Blinken has long been an apologist for Israel's existence and crimes. In one 1982 article he stated that "the history of the Middle East since 1948 shows Israel constantly striving for peace, only to be rebuffed time and again by the Arabs."

In that same year he wrote another article titled "Israel's Saving Grace" a week after the Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which he stated that the massacre of Palestinian refugees obscured the "vibrant, working democracy" of Israel, which one "must hope" would be Israel's "salvation", making the claim that those responsible for atrocities would one day be held accountable:

Israel is not, has never been, nor will ever be the irreproachable, perfectly moral state some of its supporters would like to see. Israelis are, after all, only human. Still, one pedestal the Jewish state can stand on--and stand on alone in the Middle East--is that of a democracy. Yes, there are tragic excesses in the occupied territories. True, the invasion of Lebanon claimed many innocent lives. The fact remains, though, that Israelis question themselves and their government openly and honestly. Eventually, as in other democracies, those responsible for wrongdoing are held accountable.

In another article the following year he conceptualized the massacres and repression perpetrated by Israel as "growing pains", writing that "the summer of 1982 may be remembered in history as the time Israel passed from adolescence to adulthood", and that despite these things, Israel "remains special, an oasis in a desert. Its citizens have built a working democracy from scratch in a region that has no others. Israelis must treasure that democracy, protect it with all their will."

In October 2023, days after the start of Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa, Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv with a message of US support with military and diplomatic aid for Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted Blinken at a joint conference as his "good friend Tony", thanking him and the US administration for their support in the "war against the barbarians of Hamas", followed by Netanyahu vowing Hamas would be "crushed" and insisting that the "forces of civilization" will win.

Following this, Blinken stated, "You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourselves, but as long as America exists, you will never, ever have to. We will always be there by your side. [...] We're delivering on our word, supplying ammunition, interceptors to replenish Israel's Iron Dome, alongside other defense materiel. The first shipments of US military support have already arrived in Israel and more is on the way. As Israel's defense needs evolve, we will work with Congress to make sure they're met. And I can tell you there is overwhelming, overwhelming bipartisan support in our Congress for Israel's security." At the conference's end, Blinken and Netanyahu shook hands and embraced.

On October 31, 2023, amid Israel's ongoing bombing of Gaza, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin argued at a senate hearing for immediate aid to be sent to Israel and Ukraine. Throughout the hearing, protesters behind Blinken and Austin raised their red-painted hands to signify the blood on U.S. hands for supporting Israel's bombing of Gaza, with the activists periodically standing up to call for a ceasefire and shouting that Blinken was funding genocide. Blinken repeatedly paused his speech as protesters interrupted him and were escorted out one by one by security until he could resume the budget request. In his remarks, Blinken stated that this funding would be "critical to outcompeting our strategic rivals", saying that it would support US allies in addressing "threats from an increasingly assertive PRC" and "help countries transition to military and defense equipment that’s made in America" and provide resources to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, as an alternative to China's "coercive" financing.