The administration is also expected to designate its best options for senior State Department officials based at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC.
The administration’s selection of a list of predominantly career officials for the top positions marks a shift from the Trump administration’s reliance on political appointees and shows that Biden’s team is doubling its commitment to ‘invest in career diplomats.
According to the list seen by CNN, the administration will appoint Larry André as ambassador to Somalia, Elizabeth Moore Aubin for Algeria, Steven Bondy for Bahrain, Maria Brewer for Lesotho, Marc Knapper for Vietnam, Christopher Lamora for Cameroon, Tulinabo Mushingi for Angola and Sao Tome and Principe, Michael Raynor for Senegal and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, and Eugene Young for the Republic of the Congo.
Biden officials anticipate a higher percentage of career ambassadors than the Trump administration, a senior administration official told CNN, and the White House said the appointment of career diplomats to positions of ambassador would arrive before the announcement of the politically appointed ambassadors.
Biden has received the names of the main candidates for ambassadors to the European Union, NATO and other high-level positions, including China, and is expected to make a decision on at least some of these positions by the end of this year. but, as previously reported by CNN. .
Meanwhile, most embassies without confirmed ambassadors are being run by diplomats who took second place on the post. At the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the Biden administration has kept John Sullivan – a Trump nominee – for the foreseeable future.
The average number of ambassadors appointed by politicians from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama was 31% and that number rose to 43% under former President Donald Trump, according to a report by the Foreign Relations Council prepared by experienced Department officials. of State who are now part of the Biden administration. .
The administration will also announce seven candidates for senior State Department positions: three current career diplomats and a former one. Many of these positions were left vacant or were assigned to appointed politicians under the Biden administration.
Candidates are expected to include Marcia Bernicat as director general of foreign service and foreign service board chair Karen Donfried as head of the Europe office, Barbara Leaf as head of the Middle East, Molly Phee at the head of the Africa office. and to be a member of the Board of Directors of the African Development Foundation, Michele Sison to head the Office of International Affairs, Gentry Smith to head the Office of Diplomatic Security and Anne Witkowsky to head the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations and act as reconstruction and stabilization coordinator.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to properly reflect the countries in which Elizabeth Moore Aubin and Christopher Lamora are expected to be appointed ambassadors.