Biden’s Foreign Policy Team: Katrina vanden Heuvel on Personnel and Policy


As the Biden administration takes shape, many wonder whether it will implement a truly progressive foreign policy agenda. President Biden’s early action to freeze arms sales to Saudi Arabia has given progressives hope. However, several key national security and foreign policy appointments project a more complicated picture. Katrina vanden Heuvel, long-time editor and part owner of The Nation, joins the Institute for Global Affairs’ Mark Hannah to unpack early indications of whether President Biden will follow through on the realistic and humble foreign policy on which he campaigned. If, as the adage goes, “personnel is policy,” what do his cabinet nominees and early appointments tell us about the president’s vision and agenda? Finally, vanden Heuvel explores what might be done to curb some of the interventionist impulses starting to play out among Biden’s inner circle. 

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This podcast episode includes references to the Eurasia Group Foundation, now known as the Institute for Global Affairs.

This post is part of None Of The Above, a podcast of IGA hosted by senior fellow Mark Hannah.

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