For the first time, a career diplomat is to lead the CIA

William Burns is swapping soft power for a cloak and dagger

President-elect Biden has nominated ISD Board of Advisers member Ambassador William J. Burns to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. Read this account of his nomination in The Economist:

“IN MUSIC, conductors ensure that all the instruments of an orchestra come together,” reflected William Burns in “The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal”. In foreign policy, he wrote, “diplomats similarly harness all the tools of American statecraft—from the soft power of ideas, culture, and public diplomacy, to…intelligence-gathering and covert action”. As a diplomat for 33 years, rising to become deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama, Mr Burns wielded the ideas. Now he will try his hand at the darker arts as President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [Read more]

Image: Burns addresses the media during a visit to Tokyo, Japan, in 2014. Ambassador Burns served as deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration. (Image: State Department/Flickr)

Title: For the first time, a career diplomat is to lead the CIA

Image: Burns addresses the media during a visit to Tokyo, Japan, in 2014. Ambassador Burns served as deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration. (Image: State Department/Flickr)