ABSTRACT
Devotees of the United Nations could hardly conceal their glee at the victory of Joe Biden in the November 3, 2020, presidential election. Internationalists at home and allies around the world welcomed the incoming administration’s promise to rejoin the UN’s Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, and to restore funding to the UN Population Fund. Many expected that the United States would soon also return to UNESCO and again support UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency). Most significantly, UN partisans rejoiced in the choice of Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be President Biden’s ambassador to the world organization. While Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, an African American, fit the president-elect’s promise to make his cabinet “look like America,” as important were her sterling diplomatic qualifications, including a distinguished career in the Foreign Service and in the Department of State, where until 2017 she served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. That career had spanned thirty-five years during Democratic and Republican administrations, ending abruptly with the vexed Trump purge of senior State Department officials and career professionals. The many admirers of Ms. Thomas-Greenfield were delighted that the UN ambassador would be restored to Cabinet rank and serve on the National Security Council. The appointment also was a forceful signal that the U.S. would return to engagement with the United Nations, indeed, with the world.1
