Analysis: Jakub Graca; graphic design: Natalia Matiaszczyk; collected data: Interns
Antony Blinken has served as the U.S. Secretary of State for nearly the entirety of Joe Biden’s presidency, in keeping with the norm for most U.S. administrations over the past three decades. During his tenure, he has visited 89 countries—a slightly lower figure compared to his predecessors, John Kerry (91 countries) and Hillary Clinton (116 countries).
Blinken visited both regions critical to American interests—Europe, the Far East, and the Middle East—as well as areas of secondary importance, such as South America, where he visited every country except Suriname, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay; Africa, where he visited 12 countries; and Central Asia. Over the past year, Blinken has demonstrated heightened activity in the Middle East, making 12 visits to the region since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Notably, Israel is the country he has visited most frequently, with 16 trips. (For comparison, John Kerry visited France 34 times during his tenure as Secretary of State.)
Antony Blinken’s diplomacy in the Middle East exemplifies “shuttle diplomacy”, a term first coined to describe Henry Kissinger’s efforts as Secretary of State during the Richard Nixon administration following the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. During nearly all his visits to the region, Blinken traveled to multiple countries, occasionally returning to a country he had already visited within the same trip. Israel was notably absent from only two of his Middle East visits: in September 2024, when he traveled solely to Egypt for discussions on U.S.-Egypt bilateral relations, and in December 2024, when he skipped Tel Aviv—presumably reflecting the Biden administration’s frustration with Israel’s reluctance to expedite the war’s conclusion and address civilian interests, particularly in Gaza.
It is worth noting Blinken’s two visits to the People’s Republic of China. The first took place in June 2023, though its occurrence was uncertain after being postponed four months earlier due to the fallout from a Chinese spy balloon being shot down over the U.S. on February 4, 2023. Blinken returned to the PRC less than a year later and was among several high-ranking U.S. officials to visit Beijing during the Biden administration. Others included Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor; Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce; Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury; and John Kerry, the U.S. President’s Special Envoy for Climate Change. Notably, there has not been a comparable frequency of visits by Chinese counterparts to Washington.
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