On glossy paper, Philip Gordon has a passing resemblance to actor Steve Carell, a star of the small and big screen in the United States. But the American clown’s false twin (born, like him, in August 1962) prefers the shadows to the spotlight. Perhaps not for much longer… The discreet “Phil” Gordon, currently national security advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, could become one of the State’s leading figures if the Democratic candidate wins the race for the White House in November.
The 60-year-old, married to a British woman of Nigerian origin and father of three children, is expected to replace Jake Sullivan as national security adviser if he wins. “Usually, this strategic position is filled by someone who is very reliable, who understands the world, the workings of the American bureaucracy and the way the president thinks and acts. To be frank, no one else ticks all those boxes,” says one of his former colleagues, Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
Alongside Kamala Harris, Gordon is one of the “happy few” who sits every morning at Joe Biden’s table for the traditional President’s Daily Brief (a document presented daily to the president, compiling classified information related to national security), which also includes the secretaries of state and defense and the president’s national security adviser. “He is Kamala Harris’ number one interlocutor on foreign policy,” Daalder continues. “He is the one who briefs her before her meetings, her phone calls, her one-on-ones with the president. He has been there since day one, first as deputy, then as national security adviser for the past year and a half.”
Convinced Francophile
In 2019, Philip Gordon bet on Kamala Harris, a candidate for the first time in the Democratic primaries. A choice of the heart, as in 2007 when he preferred to Hillary Clinton, supported by the Democratic establishment, the future first black president of the United States: Barack Obama. From 2009 to 2013, the diplomat was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, his first area of expertise. “He speaks very good French, Italian, German and a little Spanish, he is a great specialist in Europe”, confirms Justin Vaïsse, CEO of the Paris Peace Forum, who worked with him in the 2000s… and played a few balls on the football fields of Georgetown, in Washington. “There was also Antony Blinken [NDLR : l’actuel secrétaire d’Etat] and Rob Malley [NDLR : le principal négociateur de l’accord nucléaire iranien de 2015]he says. Like me, they weren’t very good, so we played at the back, while Phil was a goal scorer. He was the one who organised these Sunday games, he really had that team captain spirit.”
An England supporter during the Football World Cup and a die-hard tennis fan, Philip Gordon is a regular in the stands at Roland Garros. “He always manages to have something to do in France during the second week of competition!” smiles a friend. Philip Gordon also has a soft spot for France. He spent a semester there as a university exchange student, and then wrote his thesis on General de Gaulle’s foreign policy: A certain idea of Francepublished in 1993. One of his mentors is the philosopher Pierre Hassner, a specialist in international relations. “Phil was extremely optimistic about France’s assets, much more so than I, who am French! He used to say: ‘France is not the past, it is the future'” jokes Sophie Meunier, a researcher at Princeton University, who co-wrote France facing globalization (2002, Ed. Odile Jacob). In 2007, he translated Nicolas Sarkozy’s program book, Testimonypublished before his election to the presidency.
Four years later, Gordon would have to deal with the French head of state in a completely different context. 2011: Nicolas Sarkozy pushed for an air operation against Muammar Gaddafi’s troops, who were advancing towards the stronghold of the Libyan revolt, Benghazi. Washington gave the green light to carry out a raid (under a UN Security Council resolution), but did not want to lead this coalition in the long term and argued for handing over to NATO. Philip Gordon was then in charge of European Affairs at the White House. His friend Ivo Daalder was the United States ambassador to the Transatlantic Organization. “We spent a lot of time with Phil to get the agreement of the French, the Turks and the British,” he recalls. “The Turks were against it because they opposed this operation; the French were against it because they wanted to keep control; as for David Cameron’s United Kingdom, it aligned itself with Nicolas Sarkozy’s position. Phil played a very important role in this diplomatic effort which resulted in the phone call between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Alain Juppé, William Hague and Ahmet Davutoğlu (his French, British and Turkish counterparts) to ratify this agreement.”
Criticism of Israel’s policies
“Philip Gordon is a born diplomat, very measured, I have never seen him lose his cool, says Richard Haas, a veteran diplomat of Republican administrations, who has known him for decades. He is a pragmatist, that is to say he tends to support foreign policy objectives that are both desirable and achievable.” His experience as the White House coordinator for the Middle East (his second area of expertise) from 2013 to 2015, in the midst of the Syrian war, was certainly formative. In a book published in 2020, Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle Easthe analyzes the errors of American policy in this region, the hopes and failures of interventions aimed at overthrowing the regimes in place. “He showed a certain intellectual courage in writing this book because, on the left as on the right, the idea of regime change has long been popular,” recognizes Richard Haass, himself an advisor on the Middle East in the administration of George Bush senior.
This analysis could influence the policy of a future Harris administration in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “On this ground, if we stick to what Phil has written in this book, we can expect a change in direction,” continues Ivo Daalder. Phil is very clear on the fact that the use of force to change regimes does not work. And that is precisely what Israel is trying to do in Gaza.”
Already, the Democratic candidate is showing herself to be firmer than Joe Biden with regard to the Hebrew state. At the end of July, during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she did not mince her words. “What has happened in Gaza over the last nine months is devastating […] “We cannot look away from these tragedies, we cannot afford to remain indifferent. And I will not remain silent,” she promised, while recalling the United States’ “unwavering commitment” to Israel and its “right to defend itself.”
His national security adviser Philip Gordon is also known for his critical positions on Israeli policies. “It is illusory to imagine that Israel can continue to prosper, expand its regional ties, avoid further violence and remain a stable and tolerant Jewish democracy if current trends in the West Bank and Gaza continue, ending any prospect of a two-state solution,” he wrote in a 2016 note for the Council on Foreign Relations.
Another major international issue on which the Harris-Gordon duo could change its approach: China. “I think there will be an attempt to align China policy more closely with that of our European and Asian allies,” says Ivo Daalder. So far, Joe Biden’s approach has been very one-sided, like the Inflation Reduction Act [NDLR : un ensemble de mesures protectionnistes]. Phil is very sensitive to the importance of allies. “Playing collectively, a mantra, not only on the football pitch.
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