Politico | Linda Thomas-Greenfield headed to crisis-plagued UN as China challenges loom
- Joe Biden’s pick for UN envoy was confirmed by the Senate after facing tough questions over the extent to which she will confront Chinese authoritarianism
- Experts say her experience across Africa will be necessary to advance US relationships and contain China’s growing influence across the UN system
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Ryan Heath on politico.com on February 23, 2021.
The US Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Linda Thomas-Greenfield as United States ambassador to the United Nations, by a 78-20 tally.
Thomas-Greenfield will arrive at the global body’s New York headquarters surrounded by global problems, including a UN funding shortfall to which the US has itself contributed.
From Day 1, Thomas-Greenfield will confront twin crises – climate change and Covid-19 – and a string of conflicts ranging from a 20-year war in Afghanistan to a 10-year civil war in Syria, from a humanitarian crisis in Yemen to the politically fraught Iran nuclear deal.
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If that weren’t enough, Thomas-Greenfield will assume leadership of the UN Security Council – the global organisation’s top decision-making body – on March 1, before the boxes of her 40th floor apartment overlooking the Hudson River are even unpacked.
UN officials told POLITICO they hope to see both a return of American leadership and a back payment of unpaid American UN dues under Thomas-Greenfield’s leadership.
President Joe Biden made an initial commitment of US$4 billion on February 18 toward global vaccine efforts such as the Covax Facility, and broader health security investments.
Vote on Biden’s pick for UN envoy delayed over China comments
After four years of Trump-induced whiplash and withdrawal from key UN entities – including the World Health Organization – the sense of relief around Turtle Bay is palpable, even with thinned-out attendance and a largely virtual meeting schedule.
“It can only get better,” said an adviser to UN Secretary General António Guterres who was not authorised to speak to the media. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” they added.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Thomas-Greenfield and Guterres first worked together in 2005, when Thomas-Greenfield led the State Department’s refugee and migration division and Guterres served as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “He has witnessed her effectiveness and dedication in action,” Dujarric said.
Guterres’ top political priority for 2021 is climate change, and global progress now hinges on the ability of the Biden administration to move beyond its initial gesture of rejoining the Paris climate accord.
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The current Security Council leader, British Ambassador Barbara Woodward, told POLITICO that Britain is excited to work with Thomas-Greenfield, “in particular on shared priorities such as climate and Covid-19”.
Woodward on Tuesday succeeded in pushing climate change onto the agenda of the Security Council, in a debate led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which also featured the Biden administration’s new climate envoy, John Kerry.
Europe is offering to act as a bridge between the US and China, said one European ambassador. “Guterres has urged us to play the role of bridge builder. Unless we can make the two of them work together on climate and Covid[-19], the UN agenda remains paralysed,” the ambassador said.
Thomas-Greenfield, a 35-year veteran at the State Department, faced tough questions in her Senate confirmation hearings over the extent to which she will confront Chinese authoritarianism and regional meddling. She promised in her confirmation hearing to promote American values of democracy, human rights and peace.
China’s plans in Africa aren’t ‘always working’, says Biden UN pick
Her deep experience across Africa will be necessary, experts and advocates say, to advance US relationships and contain China’s growing influence across the UN system.
Those tensions are likely to come to a head in debates over equity in Covid-19 vaccine distribution. “We believe Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s background as former assistant secretary of state for African affairs makes her extremely qualified to understand the scale of this crisis and the importance of US-Africa policy,” said Sean Simons, spokesman for the anti-poverty One campaign.
Thomas-Greenfield is the fifth consecutive woman to be confirmed as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Five of the 15 Security Council ambassadors are women.
“A little less testosterone and a little more dialogue, patient listening and a capacity to facilitate – they’re undervalued qualities, particularly when there’s a lot of tension between some of the big players at the table,” Ireland’s ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason told The Irish Times.
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