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Newly appointed White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien is show being appointed special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sept. 7, 2018. (provided by the US State Department)
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Robert O’Brien regarded as being closely aligned with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
US President Donald Trump has appointed Robert O’Brien to serve as White House National Security Advisor, replacing John Bolton, who was kicked out of the position on Sept. 10. “I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor. I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!” Trump posted on Twitter on the morning of Sept. 18. O’Brien will be the fourth National Security Advisor to serve in the Trump administration, following Michael Flynn, H. R. McMaster, and John Bolton. The position puts him in charge of responding to the attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, managing the conflict with Iran, conducting denuclearization talks with North Korea, finding an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and resolving the crisis in Venezuela. O’Brien is regarded as being closely aligned with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, since the two have worked together closely at the State Department to secure the release of hostages overseas. In April, Pompeo said he was being briefed by O’Brien on a weekly basis about the hostage situation. O’Brien’s appointment expected to boost Pompeo’s influence on US foreign policy Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the White House, recently said that Pompeo was a key player in the process of appointing a new National Security Advisor. The Washington Post reported that Pompeo favored the appointment of people who are close to him, including O’Brien, as well as Brian Hook, the US State Department’s top representative for Iran policy, and Ricky Waddell, former Deputy National Security Advisor. O’Brien’s appointment as National Security Advisor is expected to substantially boost Pompeo’s influence over American foreign policy and national security policy. Though O’Brien has long participated in the Republican Party’s foreign policy, he isn’t very well known to the public. He reportedly doesn’t advocate a hardline stance toward other countries, as his predecessor Bolton did. A senior official in the American government was quoted by the Washington Post as saying that O’Brien was the safest choice for minimizing drama on the national security team as Trump seeks reelection next year. The same official described O’Brien as a wonderful person who gets along well with everyone. Such characteristics stand in sharp contrast to Bolton, who frequently got into scraps with Pompeo and other officials over the administration’s foreign policy. Born in California, O’Brien worked as a lawyer after graduating from law school at the University of California, Berkeley. His public career began when he served on the American delegation to the UN General Assembly in 2005, during the presidency of George W. Bush. As it happened, the American ambassador to the UN at the time was Bolton. In 2007, O’Brien was named the co-chair of a public-private partnership at the US State Department working for judicial reform in Afghanistan. Under the Trump administration, he was named the presidential envoy for hostage affairs in July 2018. O’Brien’s most recent assignment was to Sweden, this past July, to attend the trial of American rapper A$AP Rocky, who was being held in Sweden. On Wednesday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters that O’Brien has an exceptional talent for hostage negotiations and that he will be a reliable policy advisor for Trump. While flying to California on Air Force One on Sept. 17, Trump told reporters that he had five candidates in mind for National Security Advisor and praised O’Brien as being “fantastic.” He had already been regarded as a strong contender for the position, with Bloomberg reporting that Trump had recently interviewed him at the White House. Biegun rumored as next deputy secretary of state In a related development, Stephen Biegun, who has overseen working-level negotiations with North Korea as the US State Department’s special representative for that country, may replace Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan. In a Sept. 17 column for the Washington Post, foreign policy expert Josh Rogin cited three government officials as saying that Trump is expected to nominate Biegun as Deputy Secretary of State. But Rogin added that since the timing of Sullivan’s departure from that position is undecided, it’s also unclear when Biegun would assume that role. By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent, and Lee Yong-in, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
