US President-elect Joe Biden proposed the candidacy of former Washington's Permanent Representative to the UN Samantha Power for the post of head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

This is stated in the message of the transitional team of the Democrat.

“As the head of the Agency, she will work with our partners to work together to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, improve the situation of vulnerable communities, fight for the value of every human life and promote American ideals and interests around the world,” the message says.

In addition, Biden praised the personal qualities of Power, with whom he was familiar from his work in the Obama administration.

The newly elected president said she is "the world-renowned voice of conscience and moral purity."

“It challenges and unites the international community in the fight for the dignity and humanity of all people.

I know firsthand about her outstanding intelligence and relentless commitment to solid American engagement with other countries.

Her experience and perspective will be critical as our country reaffirms its leadership role on the world stage.

As head of the US Agency for International Development, Ambassador Power will become a powerful force helping to raise the vulnerable, ushering in a new era of human progress and development, and advancing US interests in the world, ”Biden said on his website.

The message also emphasizes that along with the promotion of Power to the post of head of USAID, Biden increases the status of this position and makes the administrator a member of the National Security Council under the President of the United States.

Humanitarian decline

The United States Agency for International Development was created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and is the main body of the federal government to provide foreign aid.

The agency administrator and deputy are appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate.

USAID is an independent agency, but works in close coordination with the US Department of State.

The main directions of the agency's activities are declared to be support for trade and the economy, health care, the humanitarian sphere and the development of democracy in other countries.

Under Donald Trump, the agency's budget has been actively cut.

So, in early 2020, the White House proposed to cut spending on international aid by 22%.

The administration motivated this by the fact that not only the United States, but also other countries should allocate money for international humanitarian needs.

  • © REUTERS / Mohamad Torokman

The American media note that under the 45th president, USAID was going through hard times.

"Under President Donald Trump, the agency's budget has been cut and professional development experts have been replaced with political appointees with little experience in the field," NBC reported.

Reporters recalled that shortly after the 2020 presidential elections, the agency's deputy administrator Bonnie Glick was removed from her post and ordered to vacate her cabinet on the same day.

The reason for the dismissal was not officially announced.

In turn, The Washington Post reported that USAID employees were bypassed during the first wave of vaccination of US State Department employees against coronavirus, which took place in December.

Chief Researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Economics Vladimir Vasiliev, in an interview with RT, noted that in the American foreign policy apparatus, the agency until recently was one of the main instruments of influence on other countries.

“USAID is the main instrument of US soft power, which should improve the country's image, especially after the recent events, as well as continue to spread democratic values ​​in other countries, and demonstrate the virtuous qualities of the American administration.

In addition, the agency finances some cultural, educational programs and thus prepares the elite in certain countries.

Under Trump, the agency's budget was cut, which is evidence that he refuses to use soft power in foreign policy, ”the political scientist said.

However, Samantha Power will not bring anything new to the work of USAID, says Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 

"I am sure that the new US leadership will rethink Trump's policy and try to make attempts to compete with its rivals, but not as roughly as was done under the previous leadership, but just using soft power, which is USAID," the expert said in a comment to RT ...

Confrontational diplomat

Samantha Power was born in Ireland, her family immigrated to the United States in 1979.

After studying at Yale University, Power worked from 1992 to 1995 as a correspondent for the US News & World Report, The Economist and the Boston Globe, covering the armed conflicts in Yugoslavia.

In 2005, she went to work for Barack Obama, who was a Senate member from Illinois at the time.

In 2008, Power participated in his presidential campaign as a foreign policy adviser.

  • Samantha Power

  • © REUTERS / Brendan McDermid

After Obama won the election, Power served as a special assistant on the National Security Council.

She was among administration officials calling in 2011 for military intervention against Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya.

It is worth noting that in early January, Joe Biden promised not to turn his presidency into "Barack Obama's third term."

However, Samantha Power has become another member of his cabinet, who previously worked on the Obama team.

Now in the Biden administration, there are already 16 cabinet members and heads of various services of the federal government, who worked under the command of the 44th US president.

This caused discontent among the progressive part of the Democratic Party, whose activists and politicians believe that relying on proven functionaries will not help solve the problems that have accumulated in the state.

Samantha Power is best known as the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, which she held from 2013 to 2017.

Power regularly harshly criticized Russia and was remembered for the constant skirmishes with the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vitaly Churkin, mainly on issues of Syria and Ukraine.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova also entered into an absentee polemic with the American permanent representative, who, in response to Power's criticism of Russia's actions in Syria, invited her to make a joint trip so that the US permanent representative could communicate directly with the Syrians and independently assess the humanitarian situation in this country.

In turn, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after a series of accusations against Moscow by Power, called her statements hysterical and declared her rhetoric unacceptable.

“I think she is somewhat aggressive towards the US representative.

We believe that it is absolutely unacceptable to use such rhetoric, such language ... I do not want to discuss the manners of our partners and I prefer to concentrate on the facts, and not the hysterical statements of people who are losing control of themselves, "Lavrov said.

According to Vladimir Vasiliev, the current US personnel policy suggests that Joe Biden is not ready for experiments and wants to restore the status quo as soon as possible.

“Today, despite Biden's promise not to make his administration a third Obama term, it is almost entirely made up of his former subordinates, but in other qualities.

Perhaps Biden believes that the most important thing is not to experiment with approaches, but to use the already accumulated experience in order to correct the US image with already known methods.

In this sense, Samantha Power and her colleagues will be able to quickly convey an idea, a message to their counterparties and other countries that Trump is not modern America, that he does not reflect the image of America, but, in their opinion, is an unfortunate disruption in American political development ", - explained the expert.

Konstantin Blokhin adheres to a similar point of view. 

“This situation is reminiscent of the round table at which the previous Obama administration sits, only in other places and without his personal participation.

On the one hand, this is a positive moment, since the Russian leadership has already worked with these people and knows what can be expected of them.

But on the other hand, one should not expect positive changes, these politicians will continue the course that has taken shape under Obama.

This situation demonstrates the personnel crisis, the lack of new personnel in the democratic administration who could transform it, ”the political scientist concluded.