Who is Robert O’Brien? From hostage negotiator to Trump’s new top security adviser
John Bolton’s replacement announced at a time of heightened tension
US President Donald Trump named the Department of State’s chief hostage negotiator, Robert O’Brien, as his new national security adviser on Wednesday.
O’Brien, who will be Trump’s fourth appointee to the role, replaces John Bolton, a notoriously hawkish hard-liner whose clashes with the president led to his abrupt dismissal on 10 September. He is said to be more affable and cooperative than his predecessor.
“Robert’s been fantastic, we know each other well,” said Trump, hailing his new appointee to the press on the tarmac of Los Angeles International Airport yesterday, and citing his “tremendous track record” securing the release of hostages.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Standing beside Trump, O’Brien said: “It’s a privilege to serve with the president. We look forward to another year and a half of peace through strength. We’ve had tremendous foreign policy successes under President Trump’s leadership. I expect those to continue,” he said, going on to repeat the phrase “peace through strength”.
So what is the new national security adviser’s background?
O’Brien trained as a lawyer before advising Republicans on foreign policy and serving in several government roles, including representative to the UN General Assembly under George W. Bush in 2005, when he worked with Bolton.
“He has also worked for former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton,” says the BBC
Prior to his appointment, perhaps O’Brien’s highest profile role was an unusual one. “O'Brien made headlines over the summer when Trump sent him to Sweden to help put pressure on the Swedish government amid the rapper A$AP Rocky's trial on assault charges,” reports Business Insider. “It was an unusual assignment, given that diplomats like O'Brien typically handle hostage situations in war-torn countries.”
Andrew Exum, a former member of the Obama Administration, had this to say on Twitter.
“Mr Trump was said to have been attracted to Mr O'Brien's personal style, which is a contrast to that of Mr Bolton, and to have concluded that he ‘looked the part’ of national security adviser,” reports The Telegraph. “US officials indicated the president wanted an adviser who would be less of a public figure, and cause less controversy.”
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Get your first six issues free–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
“In Robert O’Brien... the president seems to have found a compliant, behind-the-scenes worker bee better suited to Mr. Trump’s domineering temperament,” reflects Jonathan Stevenson in The New York Times. “His appointment may signal the death knell of any hope to check the president’s worst foreign-policy impulses.”
The administration is currently embroiled in a tense national security situation, and among O’Brien’s first duties will be to counsel the president as he deliberates over how to respond to last weekend’s attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
“In the space of seven minutes on an airport tarmac on Wednesday, President Trump captured the thorny decision he faces as he once again straddles the edge of war and peace,” says The New York Times. “One moment, he threatened to order ‘the ultimate option’ of a strike on Iran... The next he ruminated about what a mistake it had been for the United States to get entangled in Middle East wars and welcomed Iran’s president to visit.”
It will be O’Brien’s job to help Trump inflate his aura of strength, without actually risking the foreign entanglements the president has pledged to avoid.
In 2016, O’Brien published a collection of essays titled While America Slept, in which he is critical of then-president Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Again, there, he talked of “peace through strength”, clearly a tenet of his policy position.
"America faces a stark choice in 2016 between a continuation of President Obama’s ‘lead-from-behind’ foreign policy and sequester-based national security approach and a return to President Reagan’s ‘leader of the free world’ foreign policy and ‘peace through strength’ national security approach," he wrote.
On Tuesday, Trump had named five candidates as contenders for the role, but crucially, according to Bloomberg, “O’Brien had the backing of Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, whose central role shaping the administration’s foreign policy will be solidified by the appointment.”
CNN agrees that O’Brien is Pompeo’s man, calling the secretary of state “the most influential national security voice in the administration”. It adds: “Trump, who is known to respond well to flattery, has recounted praise from O'Brien in tweets and in conversations, suggesting that the new national security adviser also knows how to handle the President and his mercurial moods.”
Indeed, Trump alluded happily to O’Brien’s past praise in front of reporters in Los Angeles. “Robert O’Brien said, ‘Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator in history’. He happens to be right,” said the president.
Other commentators fear that O’Briens demonstrated ability to gratify Trump may be his primary virtue.
“Mr. Trump, fronted by Mr. Pompeo, will probably continue to dangle ‘tremendous deals’ and threaten bold military action to prop up his image as a simultaneous visionary and tough guy, neglecting what he considers mundane problems, such as humanitarian aid and refugee crises,” continues Stevenson in The New York Times. “Mr. O’Brien will be along for an erratic and risky ride, probably relegated to the back seat. World affairs will continue to be unpredictable and in disarray, American policy incoherent, and the liberal rules-based order once led by the United States further degraded.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
William Gritten is a London-born, New York-based strategist and writer focusing on politics and international affairs.
-
Assad's future life in exile
The Explainer What lies ahead for the former Syrian dictator, now he's fled to Russia?
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
The best panettones for Christmas
The Week Recommends Supermarkets are embracing novel flavour combinations as sales of the festive Italian sweet bread soar
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
Kelly Cates to present Match of the Day
Speed Read Sky Sports presenter to take over from Gary Lineker at start of next season
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Biden sets new clemency record, hints at more
Speed Read President Joe Biden commuted a record 1,499 sentences and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Kari Lake: the election denier picked to lead Voice of America
In the Spotlight A staunch Trump ally with a history of incendiary rhetoric and spreading conspiracy theories is Donald Trump's pick to lead the country's premier state media outlet
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Will Biden clear out death row before leaving office?
Today's Big Question Trump could oversee a 'wave of executions' otherwise
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
FBI Director Christopher Wray to step down for Trump
speed read The president-elect had vowed to fire Wray so he could install loyalist Kash Patel
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
What is Mitch McConnell's legacy?
Talking Point Moving on after a record-setting run as Senate GOP leader
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'A man's sense of himself is often tied to having a traditionally masculine, physical job'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Inside Trump's billionaire Cabinet
The Explainer Is the government ready for a Trump administration stacked with some of the wealthiest people in the world?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
News overload
Opinion Too much breaking news is breaking us
By Theunis Bates Published