Jake Sullivan
28th United States National Security Advisor
Assumed office
January 20, 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
DeputyJonathan Finer
Preceded byRobert C. O'Brien
National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States
In office
February 26, 2013 – August 1, 2014
Vice PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byAntony Blinken
Succeeded byColin Kahl
Director of Policy Planning
In office
February 4, 2011 – February 15, 2013
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byAnne-Marie Slaughter
Succeeded byDavid McKean
Personal details
Born
Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan

(1976-11-28) November 28, 1976
Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Margaret Maggie Vivian Goodlander
​
​
(m. 2015)​
EducationYale University (BA, JD)
University of Oxford (MPhil)

Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan (born November 28, 1976) is an American attorney who currently serves as the United States National Security Advisor, reporting directly to President Joe Biden. He previously served as Director of Policy to President Barack Obama, National Security Advisor to then Vice President Biden and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State. Sullivan also served as senior advisor to the U.S. federal government at the Iran nuclear negotiations and senior policy advisor to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, as well as visiting professor at Yale Law School.

On November 23, 2020, President-elect Biden announced that Sullivan would be appointed the United States National Security Advisor. He took office on January 20, 2021.

Early life and education

Sullivan was born in Burlington, Vermont to a family of Irish descent[1] and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[2][3] His father worked for the Star Tribune and was a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and his mother was a high school guidance counselor.[2] Sullivan attended Southwest High School in Minneapolis, where he graduated in 1994. He was a Coca-Cola Scholar, debate champion, president of the student council, and voted "most likely to succeed" in his class.[4]

Sullivan attended Yale University, where he majored in international studies and political science and was awarded the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize.[5][3] He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa his senior year and graduated summa cum laude with distinction in 1998 with a bachelor of arts.[5][6] Sullivan won a Rhodes Scholarship[7] to attend Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied international relations.[5] He was awarded a Marshall Scholarship the same year but as he sought to study at Oxford, he declined in favor of the Rhodes.[5] While at Oxford, Sullivan served as a managing editor of the Oxford International Review.[7] He graduated with a master of philosophy.[3] He graduated with a juris doctor from Yale Law School in 2003.[6] He is a member, and former board member, of the Truman National Security Project.

At Yale, he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Daily News. He interned at the Council on Foreign Relations, was a member of the Yale Debate Association and earned a Truman Scholarship in his junior year.[5][8] He also worked for Brookings Institution president Strobe Talbott at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.[9]

Career

Early career

After graduating from law school, Sullivan clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then for Associate Justice Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.[4][9][10] After his clerkships, Sullivan returned to his hometown of Minneapolis to practice law at Faegre & Benson[9] and taught law as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.[4] After Faegre & Benson, Sullivan worked as chief counsel to Senator Amy Klobuchar,[4][10] who connected him to Hillary Clinton.[2]

Obama administration

Sullivan, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in November 2012
Sullivan, Clinton and Sergey Lavrov in November 2012
Sullivan with President Obama discussing the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings

In 2008, Sullivan was an advisor to Hillary Clinton during the primary cycle and then to Barack Obama during the general election campaign. He prepared Clinton and Obama for debates.[8] When Clinton became secretary of state, Sullivan joined as her deputy chief of staff[11] and Director of Policy Planning, and he travelled with her to 112 countries.[12]

Sullivan worked in the Obama administration as deputy assistant to the president and National Security Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden.[13] He became Biden's top security aide in February 2013 after Clinton stepped down as secretary of state.[14] In those posts, he played a role in shaping U.S. foreign policy towards Libya, Syria, and Myanmar.[10]

On June 20, 2014, The New York Times reported that Sullivan was leaving the administration in August 2014 to teach at Yale Law School.[12] As of 2020, he was a nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.[15]

Iran nuclear negotiations

In November 2013, the Associated Press reported that officials in the Obama administration had been in secret contact with Iranian officials throughout 2013 about the feasibility of an agreement over the Iranian nuclear program. The report stated that American officials, including Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns, Senior White House Iran Advisor Puneet Talwar, and Sullivan, had secretly met with their Iranian counterparts at least five times face to face in Oman.[16] Those efforts paved the way for the Geneva interim agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, known officially as the Joint Plan of Action, signed by Iran and the P5+1 countries in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 24, 2013.[10][17]

Since then, Sullivan has regularly attended bilateral consultations with Iran in Geneva as a member of the U.S. delegation on the Iran nuclear negotiations.[13][18]

2016 Clinton presidential campaign

Sullivan was Hillary Clinton's chief foreign policy adviser during her 2016 bid for the presidency.[19]

He was reported to be the only senior staffer who repeatedly suggested that Clinton should spend more time in Midwestern swing states during the election campaign. Clinton's surprising failure to win those states was a key factor in her defeat.[20] Sullivan was prominent in many of the Podesta emails released during the 2016 US presidential election, including Sullivan questioning if Democratic primary candidate Martin O'Malley's 100% clean energy by 2050 plan was "realistic".[21] After the election, he confessed to feeling "a keen sense of responsibility" for Clinton's defeat.[22] On March 24, 2022, former President Donald Trump sued numerous people including Hillary Clinton and Jake Sullivan alleging a conspiracy by the Hillary Clinton campaign to invent the Russian collusion scandal.[23] The suit was dismissed on September 8, 2022, and on January 19, 2023, a federal judge imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions on Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba, calling the suit “completely frivolous.”[24]

Macro Advisory Partners and Microsoft

After his work with the Clinton campaign, Sullivan joined Macro Advisory Partners, a risk advisory company, in January 2017; it paid him at least $135,000.[25][26] While at the London-based advisory firm, he advised a number of companies including Uber, Mastercard, Lego, as well as large investment groups such as Bank of America, Aviva, Standard Life Aberdeen, and Standard Chartered.[27][25][28] Following the Clinton campaign, he joined the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire as a member of the faculty and senior fellow.[29]

Between 2017 and May 2020, Sullivan served on an advisory council for Microsoft; in 2020, he was paid $45,000 for this work.[30] Given his role in crafting U.S. cyber security policy in the Biden administration, including overseeing the government's response to January's cyberattack on Microsoft, concerns have been raised about potential conflicts of interest.[30][31]

Biden administration

Sullivan with Israel's National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and Israel's Ambassador Gilad Erdan in April 2021
Sullivan sitting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the U.S. national security team, August 18, 2021
Sullivan with Israel's President Isaac Herzog, December 22, 2021

On November 22, 2020, Sullivan was announced as President-elect Joe Biden's choice to be National Security Advisor.[32] Upon his appointment, Sullivan stated that the early priorities of Biden's National Security Council (NSC) are the COVID-19 pandemic, "restructuring the NSC to make public health a permanent national security priority", and China relations.[3] He also emphasized that the Biden administration aimed to repair American relations with allies that he regarded as being damaged during the Trump administration.[3]

One of Sullivan's themes in the job is connecting US actions on the world stage to the lives and welfare of ordinary Americans, with the mantra of "a foreign policy for the middle class".[33]

After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Sullivan said that the collapse of the government of Afghanistan occurred because at the "end of the day, despite the fact we spent 20 years and tens of billions of dollars to give the best equipment, the best training and the best capacity to the Afghan national security forces, we could not give them the will and they ultimately decided that they would not fight for Kabul and they would not fight for the country."[34] However, Brett Bruen, director of global engagement in the Obama White House called for his dismissal over his role in the affair.[35][36]

On September 28, 2021, Sullivan met in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss the 2021 global energy crisis and Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[37] They also discussed the potential deal to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.[38]

On October 6, 2021, a high level meeting between Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat, CCP Politburo member Yang Jiechi in Zürich, Switzerland focused on a number of contentious aspects of Chinese-American relations, including the existence of Taiwan, trade disputes, the COVID-19 origin theories, as well as civic freedoms in Hong Kong. Despite continued differences between the two nations on these issues, both sides agreed to continue their cooperation "in the spirit of fair and peaceful competition".[39]

On October 25, 2021, Sullivan was briefed by Pentagon officials on the full range of military options to ensure that Islamic Republic of Iran would not be able to produce a nuclear weapon.[40]

On November 7, 2021, Sullivan stated that the US does not pursue system change in China anymore,[41] marking a clear break from the China policy pursued by previous US administrations. Sullivan said that U.S. is not seeking a new Cold War with China, but is looking for a system of peaceful coexistence.[42]

Sullivan with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, November 4, 2022

On December 7, 2021, Sullivan warned that Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project will end in the event of Russian invasion of Ukraine.[43]

On January 14, 2022, Sullivan accused Russia of sending saboteurs into Ukraine to stage "a false-flag operation" that would create a pretext for Russia to invade Ukraine.[44] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the U.S. claim as "total disinformation."[45]

Sullivan with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, January 19, 2023

On February 11, 2022, Sullivan publicly warned about the likelihood of a Russian invasion of Ukraine prior to the end the 2022 Winter Olympics, urging all Americans to leave Ukraine immediately and indicating that there may be "no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation" once the invasion commences.[46] He claimed that "Russia has all the forces it needs to conduct a major military action."[47]

Sullivan with President Joe Biden, February 19, 2023

On March 13, 2022, Sullivan warned of a full-fledged NATO response if Russia attacks any part of NATO territory.[48]

On March 14, 2022, he warned China that it would face consequences if it helped Russia evade sanctions.[49]

On July 6, 2023, President Joe Biden authorized the provision of cluster munitions in support of a Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces in Russian-annexed southeastern Ukraine, bypassing U.S. law prohibiting the transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate greater than one percent.[50] Sullivan defended the use of cluster munitions, saying that "Ukraine would not be using these munitions in some foreign land. This is their country they’re defending."[51]

On October 2, 2023, Sullivan stated in an article on Foreign Affairs that the Biden administration had "de-escalated crises in Gaza". Five days later, Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, sparking the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. The article was later edited for online release.[52]

On October 15, 2023, CNN's Jake Tapper, in an interview with Sullivan, raised questions about Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and the impact on its population. Sullivan claimed that the United States worked with Israel "to make sure that innocent Palestinians get access to [water and medicine and food] and are protected from bombardment."[53]

On October 29, 2023, Sullivan dismissed calls for a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, warning that any potential "humanitarian pause" to get hostages out of Gaza could benefit Hamas.[54] He declined to comment on whether Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza and whether Gazans would be allowed to return to their homes.[55][56] Sullivan stated that "Israel has a right, indeed a responsibility, to defend itself against a terrorist group."[56]

Personal life

Sullivan is married to Margaret "Maggie" Vivian Goodlander, an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve who served as a former advisor to senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. A graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, Goodlander served as a law clerk to then-Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.[57][58][59]

In late April 2023, an unknown man reportedly entered Sullivan's West End home in the middle of the night, but left before Secret Service agents were alerted.[60]

Publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ Elise Labott, "The Sullivan Model", Foreign Policy, April 9, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Gihring, Tim (February 9, 2016). "'We just go to Jake': How a Southwest High grad became Hillary Clinton's go-to guy". MinnPost. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Bertrand, Natasha (November 27, 2020). "The inexorable rise of Jake Sullivan". Politico. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Henry, David (November 27, 2013). "Jake Sullivan: Minneapolis Native Among Those to Hatch Iranian Nuclear Deal". MinnPost. Archived from the original on December 25, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Scholastic Prizes". Yale Bulletin & Calendar. Vol. 26, no. 33. Yale Office of Public Affairs & Communications (Yale University). 1998. Archived from the original on May 20, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "State Department Policy Planning Director and Hillary Clinton Advisor Jake Sullivan '03 Will Discuss American Leadership Friday". Yale Law School. October 25, 2011. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  7. 1 2 "Vice President Biden Announces Jake Sullivan as New National Security Advisor". Office of the Vice President of the United States. February 26, 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Jake Sullivan". The Washington Post. July 23, 2012. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 Rogin, Josh (January 25, 2011). "Jake Sullivan to Become State Department Director of Policy Planning". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on December 25, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Pace, Julie (December 24, 2013). "Vanishing Adviser Reappears as Iran Policy Player". Yahoo! News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  11. ↑ Nather, David (April 14, 2015). "Clinton names top 3 wonks for campaign". Politico. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
  12. 1 2 Landler, Mark (June 20, 2014). "Biden Adviser Leaving Washington, but It May Not Be for Long". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2016. he was one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's closest advisers, at her side in all 112 countries she visited as secretary of state.
  13. 1 2 "U.S. Delegation Travel to Geneva for Talks With Iran on Its Nuclear Program" (Press release). U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesperson. August 6, 2014. Archived from the original on January 21, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Vice President Biden Announces Jake Sullivan as New National Security Advisor" (Press release). The White House, Office of the Vice President. February 26, 2013. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Jake Sullivan". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Report Claims Secret US–Iran Talks Laid Groundwork for Nuclear Deal". Fox News Channel. Associated Press. November 24, 2013. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
  17. ↑ "A Timeline of Key Events in US–Iran Negotiations". Yahoo! News. Associated Press. November 25, 2004. Archived from the original on December 9, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
  18. ↑ "U.S. Delegation Travel to Geneva for Talks With Iran on Its Nuclear Program" (Press release). U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesperson. September 3, 2014. Archived from the original on January 21, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  19. ↑ "USC/Times poll: Sanders and Clinton locked in a tight race in final days before California primary". Los Angeles Times. June 2, 2016. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  20. ↑ Thrush, Glenn (December 9, 2016). "10 Crucial Decisions That Reshaped America". Politico. Archived from the original on December 11, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016. He was also the only one of the dozen aides who dialed in for Clinton's daily scheduling call who kept on asking if it wasn't a good idea for her to spend more time in the Midwestern swing states in the closing days of the campaign.
  21. ↑ Cooper, Ryan (October 26, 2016). "This hacked Clinton campaign email shows why 'serious' people just don't get climate change". The Week. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  22. ↑ Jaffe, Greg (July 14, 2017). "Lessons in disaster: A top Clinton adviser searches for meaning in a shocking loss". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Trump sues Hillary Clinton and others over Russia collusion allegation". Axios. March 24, 2022.
  24. ↑ "Trump and lawyer sanctioned almost $1 million for 'frivolous' lawsuit against Hillary Clinton". CNBC. January 19, 2023.
  25. 1 2 Guyer, Jonathan (July 8, 2020). "How a Biden Adviser Got a Gig With Uber". The American Prospect. Archived from the original on July 21, 2020.
  26. ↑ Schwartz, Brian (March 20, 2021). "Biden's closest advisors have ties to big business and Wall Street with some making millions". CNBC. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Thinker, Tanker, Scholar, Consultant". The American Prospect. March 25, 2021. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
  28. ↑ "Watchdogs concerned about some Biden appointees' opaque consulting work". ABC News. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  29. ↑ "Biden Names UNH Faculty Member Jake Sullivan As National Security Advisor". New Hampshire Public Radio. November 23, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  30. 1 2 Bose, Nandita (March 22, 2021). "Biden aides had ties to large tech companies, disclosures show". Reuters. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  31. ↑ Day, Chad (March 21, 2021). "Biden White House's Ties to Big Tech Are Detailed in New Disclosures". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  32. ↑ Pager, Tyler; Epstein, Jennifer; Mohsin, Saleha (November 22, 2020). "Biden to Name Longtime Aide Blinken as Secretary of State". Bloomberg News. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  33. ↑ Borger, Julian (September 26, 2021). "Jake Sullivan: the Biden insider at the center of the Afghanistan crisis". The Guardian. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  34. ↑ "National security adviser: Afghan army lacked 'will' to defend its country". The Hill. August 16, 2021.
  35. ↑ Bruen, Brett. "Ex-Obama adviser: Why Biden must fire his national security adviser for Afghanistan failure". USA Today. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  36. ↑ Choi, Joseph (August 16, 2021). "Ex-Obama adviser argues Biden should fire Sullivan over Afghanistan". The Hill. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  37. ↑ "Top White House aide discussed oil prices with Saudi Arabia". Reuters. October 1, 2021.
  38. ↑ "Scoop: Jake Sullivan discussed Saudi-Israel normalization with MBS". Axios. October 20, 2021.
  39. ↑ "Treffen in Zürich: Die Gespräche sind beendet, Sullivan äussert Bedenken gegenüber Chinas Vorgehen" (in German) Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  40. ↑ "Exclusive: U.S., Israel to discuss military drills for Iran scenario". Reuters. December 9, 2021.
  41. ↑ "CNN - Transcripts". transcripts.cnn.com. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  42. ↑ "US wants coexistence not cold war with China, Jake Sullivan says". South China Morning Post. November 8, 2021. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  43. ↑ "Biden warns Putin of 'strong' Western economic sanctions if Russia attacks Ukraine". France 24. December 7, 2021.
  44. ↑ "With Russian troops at Ukraine's border, talks to avert a conflict end deadlocked". NPR. January 14, 2022.
  45. ↑ "Russia denies looking for pretext to invade Ukraine". Associated Press. January 17, 2022.
  46. ↑ Desk, NPR Washington (February 11, 2022). "Russia could begin an invasion before the Olympics end, Biden adviser says". NPR. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  47. ↑ "Ukraine crisis: Biden and Putin to talk, Zelenskyy slams latest invasion warnings". Euronews. February 12, 2022.
  48. ↑ "Russia Hitting NATO Even Accidentally Will Spur 'Full' Response: Sullivan". Newsweek. March 13, 2022.
  49. ↑ Ferguson, Niall (March 22, 2022). "Putin Misunderstands History. So, Unfortunately, Does the U.S." Bloomberg.
  50. ↑ "Controversy surrounds US decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine". The Hill. July 7, 2023.
  51. ↑ "Cluster Weapons U.S. Is Sending Ukraine Often Fail to Detonate". The New York Times. July 7, 2023.
  52. ↑ "Jake Sullivan's 'Quieter' Middle East Comments Did Not Age Well". The New York Times. October 26, 2023.
  53. ↑ "Tapper presses Sullivan on Israel cutting off food, water to Gaza". The Hill. October 15, 2023.
  54. ↑ "National security adviser defends Israel's efforts to defeat Hamas". Politico. October 29, 2023.
  55. ↑ "Sullivan blames 'fog of war' over Israel's targeting of basic infrastructure in Gaza". The Hill. October 15, 2023.
  56. 1 2 "Biden's Legacy Should Be Forever Haunted by the Names of Gaza's Dead Children". The Intercept. November 14, 2023.
  57. ↑ Jakes, Lara; Crowley, Michael; Sanger, David E. (November 23, 2020). "Biden Chooses Antony Blinken, Defender of Global Alliances, as Secretary of State". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  58. ↑ Leibovich, Mark (November 30, 2021). "Jake Sullivan, Biden's Adviser, a Figure of Fascination and Schadenfreude". The New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
  59. ↑ "Margaret Goodlander". Center for a New American Security. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  60. ↑ Leonnig, Carol; Pager, Tyler (May 16, 2023). "Intrusion at national security adviser's home under investigation". The unknown man walked into Jake Sullivan's home at about 3 a.m. one day in late April and Sullivan confronted the individual, instructing him to leave, two of the people briefed on the incident said. There were no signs of forced entry at the home, according to one of the people. Sullivan has a round-the-clock Secret Service detail. But agents stationed outside the house were unaware that an intruder had gotten inside the home, located in the West End neighborhood of Washington, until the man had already left and Sullivan came outside to alert the agents, the two people said.
  61. ↑ Sullivan, Jake (October 24, 2023). "The Sources of American Power". Foreign Affairs. No. November/December 2023. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
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