No matter which way the presidential election goes next week, the U.S. State Department says it is taking steps to change how U.S. diplomacy interacts with the rest of the world.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday spoke about how the tech revolutions we are seeing now — mainly things like artificial intelligence and cyber security concerns — are impacting U.S. diplomatic efforts around the world.
And Blinken said competition from China is front and center in how the department operates moving forward.
"We face a small number of revisionist powers, principally Russia with the partnership of Iran and North Korea, as well as China, that are aggressively challenging our interests and values and are determined to alter the foundational principles at the heart of the international system," Blinken said. "China alone has acquired the economic, the diplomatic, and the technological and military power to do so on a regional and a global scale."
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Blinken addressed a gathering at the Foreign Service Institute, which is where the U.S. trains its diplomats.
In 2021, as part of a modernization effort, the State Department created new bureaus to deal with global issues such as climate change, global health — and the influence of China.
The China House, as it's known, is an effort to better coordinate how to deal with competition from China on the global stage —bringing together experts on China from across the department.
"The world we face is more competitive, it's more complex, it's more combustible than at any other point in my career," Blinken said.
Blinken also said the U.S. is not asking countries around the world to necessarily choose between it and China — but he says they are making the case on the value of those countries having strong diplomatic relations with the U.S.
Election not expected to factor
A senior State Department official said that they have seen support from both sides of the aisle and that there is an overall sense that these steps are needed to deal with what they call a "Very competitive environment right now" – mainly with China.
So they seem optimistic that these changes will stay in place no matter which party controls the White House or Congress.
