Who is William Burns? Joe Biden picks 'exemplary diplomat' for CIA director role as Gina Haspel's term ends
President-elect Joe Biden, who is now little over a week from his inauguration, on Monday, January 11, picked William Joseph Burns, former US ambassador to Jordan and Russia and as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Biden praised Burns as an “exemplary diplomat” and said the people of America will be able to “sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director”. If he gets confirmed, the 64-year-old will become the first leader in the premier foreign intelligence agency who spent a long part of his career at the US Department of State. He will succeed Gina Haspel, the first woman chief of the CIA who has been serving since 2018.
Who is William Burns?
Born at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in April 1956, Burns earned his BA in history from La Salle University, Pennsylvania and MPhil and DPhil degrees in International Relations from St John’s College, Oxford, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. He is a well-regarded personality in the diplomatic circles, respected for his intellect, rich experience in foreign affairs as well as analytical prowess. A staunch critic of incumbent President Donald Trump's foreign policy which has often been erratic and isolationist, Burns predicted in a blogpost last year that Trump was less likely to accept a “traditional bipartisan commitment to effective transition” if he lost the 2020 presidential race to Biden. “The costs of confusion, mixed signals, and bureaucratic turmoil could be very high,” he wrote.
In 2017, he wrote a strong opinion piece in the New York Times in which he called out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “aggressive meddling” in the American presidential election in the year before. He has also stressed the need for the US to have international alliances, particularly with those in Europe and Nato and has also sought the rebuilding of the American foreign service. Burns is fluent in Russian, Arabic and French and was a specialist in Russian and Middle East issues.
Burns has received three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards as well as the highest civilian honors from the Pentagon and the intelligence community. He joined the foreign service in 1982 and worked as a close advisor and confidante to the likes of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and others. His 2019 book ‘The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal’ talks about revamping American diplomacy besides recalling his days in the field, including helping in the early stages of the Barack Obama administration’s outreach to Iran.
Burns’s career
The veteran has held several administrative positions in his illustrative career and both under Republican and Democratic presidencies. He served as the executive secretary of the state department between 1996 and 1998 (Bill Clinton was the president then) when he was made the ambassador to Jordan. He served in that capacity till 2001 when George W Bush came to the office. Thereafter, Burns became the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs in 2001 and remained so till 2005. He served as a top aide to former secretaries of state William Christopher and Madeleine Albright and the director of the state department's policy planning office. In November the same year, he became the American envoy to Russia and continued till May 2008. He was picked as the under secretary of state for political affairs in 2008 and served in that capacity till 2011 when Obama was in office. In between, Burns also chipped in as the acting secretary of state for two days (Jan 20-21, 2009).
Burns then became the deputy secretary of state in July 2011 and continued till November 2014. In April the same year, the state department announced that Burns would step down as the deputy secretary of state in October 2014 after he delayed his retirement twice -first at the request of former secretary John Kerry and then of former president Obama. He became the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in February 2015.
The Atlantic once called Burns the “secret diplomatic weapon” deployed against “some of the thorniest foreign policy challenges of the US”. Last November, Burns was named in the race to become the state secretary but eventually got nominated for the post of the CIA chief. Anthony Blinken got the post of state secretary.
Burns’s foreign policy focus
The diplomat in Burns is a strong advocate who eyes rebuilding and restructuring the foreign service and finds himself in alliance with Biden in this regard. “Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure,” the vice-president said in a statement.
“He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect. Ambassador Burns will bring the knowledge, judgment, and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats before they can reach our shores. The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director,” he added.