Top US diplomat in Europe resigns

A. Wess Mitchell, the top diplomat in charge of European affairs, will resign from the State Department next month, creating a key vacancy at a time when European leaders are questioning President Trump’s commitment to historic alliances.

Background 

The Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs is a position within the United States Department of State that leads the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs charged with implementing American foreign policy in Europe and Eurasia, and with advising the Under Secretary for Political Affairs on matters relating to diplomatic missions within that area.

Aaron Wess Mitchell is an American policy analyst and government official who is the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Prior to assuming his current position, he was president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis. On July 19, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Mitchell as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

He was confirmed by the United States Senate in September 2017. On January 22, 2019, it was announced Mitchell will resign from his post in February.

Analysis 

A. Wess Mitchell has cited personal and professional reasons in his letter of resignation submitted to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. His last day as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs will be Feb. 15.

“As the administration completes its second year in office, I feel that I have completed what I set out to do in taking this position,” he wrote, citing the development of a Europe strategy and helping Pompeo transition into the job after Rex Tillerson was fired in March. “As such, I believe that the time has come for me to spend more time with my young family, who have endured many days without me over the past several months.”

Mitchell said his resignation is not a protest of the administration’s policies or the direction of foreign policy, and he praised Pompeo’s leadership and vision. “I’m fully supportive of him, the job he’s doing, the leadership team here,” he said. “But I feel like I’ve done what I came in to do. My kids have a greater claim to my time right now than the public does.”

In September 2017, Mitchell became one of the first assistant secretaries of state in the Trump administration confirmed by the Senate, and his departure creates another vacancy in the ranks of senior officials. Currently, six of the 24 spots have nominees awaiting Senate confirmation.

Mitchell joins a revolving door of senior officials leaving the Trump administration at the beginning of its third year. His departure comes almost a year after H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser who was instrumental in bringing Mitchell to the administration, was abruptly dismissed.

Mitchell came to the State Department from a think tank he co-founded, the Center for European Policy Analysis. He had just published a book, “The Unquiet Frontier,” in which he and Jakub Grygiel criticized President Barack Obama’s foreign policy and argued for the “renovation” of alliances. Grygiel also joined the State Department, working on European issues before leaving last year.

During his 16 months heading the Europe bureau, Mitchell oversaw relations with 50 countries and important blocs such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Many are struggling with domestic turmoil or problems in their relationships with Washington. Russia, for example, is under heavy U.S. sanctions. Britain is riven over Brexit. Turkey has arrested U.S. Consulate employees. Hungary is led by a right-wing populist with an authoritarian streak.

In Central and Eastern Europe, Mitchell scrapped the Obama-era policy of shunning authoritarian leaders over human rights violations and treated them as potential partners. To the alarm of human rights advocates, Hungary’s foreign minister came to Washington for high-level meetings arranged by Mitchell with Pompeo and John Bolton, the national security adviser.

Assessment 

Our assessment is that with the resignation of Mitchell, the Trump Administration now lacks 7 key secretaries and 30 ambassadors in the State Department. We believe that the recent string of resignations are a sign of the faltering Trump administration and we also feel that we can expect a few more key positions to be vacated in the coming months.