The National Security Council (NSC) serves as the President of the United States’ principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters. The Council advises, assists, and informs the President, and is therefore a powerful and important body to shape the United States’ foreign policy towards the rest of the world. The Biden administration has appointed Juan González as Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere. In this role, he will oversee the country’s policy towards our southern neighbors in Latin America.
Juan González, a native of Cartagena, Colombia, is a foreign policy expert with significant experience in Latin America and the Caribbean. He earned a Bachelor of Science at the University of Buffalo and a Master’s in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University. He has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and entered the State Department in 2004, working the Colombia Desk in the Office of Andean Affairs. He then served as chief of staff to Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela. During the Obama-Biden Administration, González served as the National Security Council Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs between 2011 and 2013 and as Western Hemisphere advisor to then-Vice President Biden from 2013 to 2015. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs between 2016 and 2017. Furthermore, he led the Cohen Group’s practice in Latin America and the Caribbean as Associate Vice President and currently serves as Principal at JSG Strategy.
The Biden administration’s NSC, under the leadership of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, plans a complete shift in priorities from that of the current administration’s. President-elect Biden has signaled that his goal is to break barriers between domestic policy and national security, “especially on crosscutting issues” such as “covid, climate, migration and even U.S.-China relations that have touched so many domestic equities,” said a senior adviser. Additionally, the Biden administration will repair President Trump’s dysfunctional national security team. As for the Western Hemisphere, after four years of the current President’s anti-immigrant and xenophobic stances on the region, González’s appointment represents the start of new relations between the United States and Latin America.