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Biden Administration International Affairs Personnel Tracker
Brian Deese
Director of the National Economic Council
Brian Christopher Deese is the 13th Director of the National Economic Council, serving under the Biden administration. Deese served as a senior advisor for climate and energy policy to President Barack Obama. In this position, Deese played an influential role in negotiating the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and directing the United States’s engagement with China, India, and other major economies on climate issues. Deese also served as deputy director of the National Economic Council. Deese previously worked as Global head of Sustainable Investing at Blackrock.
On China
While acknowledging China as “our most serious global competitor,” Deese said that the Biden administration will prioritize domestic investment in the technology sector and focus on rebuilding U.S. core strength instead of undermining Chinese companies with tariffs and export bans. Deese also added that another key is to “really revitalize our alliances and our partnerships around the world.” In an April 9, 2021 podcast regarding President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, Deese said that a lot of President Biden’s thinking about the infrastructure investments are “in contraposition to what he is seeing China doing in terms of strategic investments.” Deese justified the focus on China by highlighting China’s economic and national security strengths and China’s critical position in the global economy.
Deese believes that the U.S.-China great power competition is not related to China’s commitment to addressing climate change, but “a function of its own self-interest” and that not recognizing the potential in partnership could be an “enormous missed opportunity for the United States.”
According to a February 17 Bloomberg article, Deese has sought the Taiwanese government’s help in resolving a global semiconductor shortage that concerns U.S. automotive companies.
Notable Testimony & Commentary
- Carbon Brief, “The Carbon Brief Interview: Brian Deese,” April 10, 2017
- The durability of the Chinese commitment on [addressing climate change] is real…The Chinese commitment…is not a function of its relationship with the United States. It is, ultimately, a function of its own self-interest…I anticipate that you will see other countries that are looking for partners on clean-energy technologies and clean-energy deployment increasingly look to China, which is an enormous missed opportunity for the United States.”
Media Commentary & Public Perceptions
- Forbes, “Biden Climate Plan Risks Putting China And BlackRock Before The American People,” December 3, 2020
- Jason Furman, who served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Obama administration, has been quoted by a Forbes analysis saying that Deese “will be the most focused on climate change of any top economic official ever.” “He sees it as an integral part of an overall economic strategy.”
Page Last Updated: August 2, 2021
*None of the personnel in this tracker are associated with the Institute for China-America Studies. All images used on this page are sourced from the official Biden-Harris transition website buildbackbetter.gov or the public domain.*
