Antony Blinken / wikimedia commons

Tipped to become the next Secretary of State, Antony Blinken is a Francophile who speaks fluent French and even holds a baccalaureate. Joe Biden is due to announce his appointment on Tuesday, November 24, according to several American media.

A well-known figure in international circles, this close friend of the President-elect’s family was Deputy National Security Advisor, before becoming Deputy Secretary of State between 2015 and 2017 under the presidency of Barack Obama. Described as Biden’s “alter ego”, the 58-year-old New Yorker has spent part of his life in France. His mother Judith moved with him and his new husband, holocaust survivor Samuel Pisar (and father of the Franco-American President of Project Aladdin Leah Pisar), to Paris in the 1970s. The young “Tony” – he was 9 years old – studying at the highly selective École Jeanine Manuel (EABJM), an international establishment considered one of the best high schools in France and which also saw the children of Nicolas and Cécilia Sarkozy, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg and members of the Bouygues family in particular.

Robert Malley, CEO of the International Crisis Group, who studied at the same high school as Antony Blinken, told the Financial Times that his French years, which corresponded with the end of the Vietnam War, forged the diplomat: “Tony was an American in Paris – both terms are important. He was very conscious of being American and he believes in American values. But he also understood how foreign policy could affect the rest of the world as he lived abroad and saw how others looked at the United States. At the time, the country was not particularly popular in Europe, especially in France. Tony navigated between these two universes“.

I found myself very early in my life playing diplomats, trying to explain America to my classmates“, He said during a parliamentary hearing. That’s good. If he is confirmed by the Senate, as any appointed to the post of Secretary of State must be, he will have to use his diplomatic skills to relaunch relations with Europe, which had been damaged after four tumultuous years.

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