Who is Kurt Campbell – and what does his appointment by Joe Biden mean for US and Australian relationships with China?
He might be one of the most important foreign policy figures in the incoming Biden administration, but you’ve probably never heard of him.
Kurt Campbell, a career diplomat who led Barack Obama’s Asia policy, has been tapped as Joe Biden’s co-ordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council. It’s a job more colloquially described as the president-elect’s “Asia tsar”.
Campbell’s appointment is crucial because it could be a sign of the United States taking a more consistently hawkish approach to China, which could in turn have big consequences for Australian foreign relations.
