Senate Confirms Antony “Tony” Blinken ’88 as Deputy Secretary of State
Blinken Served Most Recently as President Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser
New York, December 17, 2014—Columbia Law School alumnus Antony “Tony” Blinken ’88 was confirmed as deputy secretary of state by the U.S. Senate Tuesday.
Since January 2013, Blinken has served as assistant and deputy national security adviser to President Obama. Previously, Blinken was national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
From 2002 to 2008, Blinken served as staff director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was also a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. During the Clinton administration, Blinken served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs, as well as special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for European affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
In April 2012, Blinken returned to Morningside Heights to honor the academic and diplomatic career of Columbia Law School Professor Emeritus of Law and International Organization Richard N. Gardner, whose storied seminar Blinken took as a student at the Law School. Blinken also served as a panelist at the two-day event.