Avril Haines, President-elect Joe Biden’s Historical Appointee for Director of National Intelligence
- Sonja Kleven
- Dec 12, 2020
- 4 min read
President-elect Joe Biden’s decision to appoint Avril Haines to the position of Director of National Intelligence is historic - and not just because she’ll be the first appointee to have studied judo at a training institute in Japan. If confirmed, Avril Haines will become the first woman to hold the position as Director of National Intelligence in the history of the United States. Although her identity as female will be a first in the position, Haines is a highly-qualified, outstanding candidate for the role in her own right.
At first glance, Haines may seem like an unlikely pick for the Director of National Intelligence. Her personality - as described by a number of her colleagues - is caring, nice, and kind. Deputy National Security Advisor Benjamin Rhodes, when asked to speak on Haines’s behalf said, “She may quite literally be the nicest person any of us have ever met.” Don’t let her sweet demeanor fool you, though. Haines is an extremely hard worker and not one to shy away from standing up to power. In a response to her nomination to Director of National Intelligence by President-elect Biden, Haines pledged, “Mr. President-elect, you know that I have never shied away from speaking truth to power, and that will be my charge as Director of National Intelligence.”
There’s no doubt that Haines’s previous work makes her a highly-qualified candidate for the position as Director of National Intelligence. With a degree in theoretical physics from the University of Chicago, a law degree from Georgetown, extensive experience in the government field, and an unmatched work ethic, Haines is a quiet but powerful force to be reckoned with.
Haines grew up on the Upper West Side of New York in a household with two academically brilliant, creative parents. During her young teenage years, her mother’s health began to quickly decline. At the mere age of twelve, Haines took over the responsibility of caring for her mother day in and day out. Just before Haines turned sixteen, her mother passed away.
The tragic events in her young life didn’t extinguish Haines’s fire and passion for discovery. After high school, Haines enrolled at the University of Chicago and began pursuing a degree in theoretical physics - a heavily male-dominated field. In her senior year, Haines enrolled in flying lessons. Not one to shy away from adventure, her lessons eventually led to an attempt to fly a 1961 Cessna 310 across the Atlantic with her then-flight instructor and future husband, David Davighi. The pair ended up crash landing off the Newfoundland coast.
After her brush with death and the completion of her degree in physics, Haines and her fiance moved to Baltimore and restored a run-down bar into a quaint independent bookstore and cafe. In 1998, Haines enrolled at Georgetown Law School to pursue a degree that aligned with another passion - human rights advocacy. After graduation, Haines begane working as a lawyer for the State Department. From there, Haines went on to become a critical player in many government roles. She worked for the Legal Advisor’s Office of Political Military Affairs, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (where she got to know then Vice-President Joe Biden, the chairman of the committee), and the head of the Treaty Affairs Office.
In 2011, Haines became the first woman to hold the position of deputy counsel to the president for national-security affairs. Haines proved herself once again in this role, showcasing a fantastic work ethic, level-head, and spectacular negotiation skills when tasked with tackling pertinent national security issues under the Obama Administration. In August of 2013, Haines was appointed to the “number two” position in the United States national security committee - the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Now, if confirmed, Haines is set to take on the “number one” spot in the Intelligence community - Director of National Intelligence.
In an article for Foreign Policy magazine last April, Haines expressed her concerns about Trump’s dangerous inclination to politicize United States intelligence agencies. In the article, co-written with Micheal Morell and David S. Cohen, Haines and her colleagues argue that the intelligence community needs to be able to make analytical decisions without being swayed by the politics of the time. “Analytical objectivity—intelligence officials writing and saying what they believe to be the truth without consideration for policy or politics—is fundamental to U.S. national security,” the authors argue. According to Haines and her colleagues, politicized intelligence agencies can have detrimental consequences - for example, the 1986 Chernobly nuclear disaster. Before Trump, politically-neutral intelligence agencies had been the standard since World War II. Judging by her voiced commitment to analytical leadership and her track record as a dependable, level-headed leader, we can hope that Haines’s nomination makes politically-neutral intelligence work the norm once again.
Haines is highly respected among her peers and co-workers, but she is not without skeletons in her closet. Some question her work on the C.I.A.'s anti-terrorist drone strike program during the Obama Administration and support of Trump’s nominee for C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel. Questions surrounding these topics will most likely be brought up during Haines’s Senate confirmation hearing, which is expected to take place sometime over the next few months.
If confirmed, Haines will become President-elect Biden’s top intelligence advisor and head of the Intelligence Community. Managing the tasks of Director of National Intelligence is no easy feat, but if anyone is prepared to lead the country with a strong work ethic, a level head, and an appreciation for theoretical physics and good literature, it is Avril Haines.
image source:
Comments