Greek American George Tsunis nominated as next US Ambassador to Greece
Ole Joe Biden has finally announced his choice for the next ambassador to Greece; on October 8, the White House said George Tsunis, a Greek-American businessman and prominent Democratic party donor, will be the next US envoy in Athens if, that is, he passes muster during his Senate confirmation hearings. His previous nomination by Barak Obama, for the post of US ambassador to Norway, crushed and burned when George displayed an embarrassing lack of knowledge about the country’s government organization. If Tsunis clears the Senate hurdle will be only the second Greek-American US envoy to Greece after WWII. The recently deceased Michael Sotirchos (1928-2019) was in command of AmEmbassy Athens between 1989 and 1993, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan.
Tsunis, if approved, will succeed Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt, who arrived in Athens in 2016 after spending three years as US envoy in the Ukraine. Pyatt gained a certain notoriety, during Ukraine’s Euromaidan riots, when a telephone conversation between him and the then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, surfaced on YouTube—with Victoria being heard to use rather disparaging language about the EU (Nuland, who allegedly harbored dreams of becoming Secretary of State, after Biden’s victory, had to settle for the office of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs). As for Pyatt, his unusual length of service in Athens (he assumed the post in September 2016) fed intense Greek media speculation about his alleged “real duties” in a role variously described as “the boss” or Washington’s “overseer” making sure Greece continues to toe the US line.
If Tsunis lands at AmEmbassy Athens, he’ll be hard pressed to meet even the minimum standard for the post. He knows next to nothing about Greek politics, and/or regional politico-strategic affairs, being simply a (very) rich practitioner of the “hospitality business,” with pockets deep enough to oil the Democratic party’s backroom give-and-take over prestigious appointments. And I’m almost certain his rotund physique, and innocent full face, will tease the well-established Greek tendency of adopting nasty and disparaging jokes about all and sundry—which will be the true killers of his ambassadorial prestige.
Athens rocked by Biden’s nomination of political operative
A non-career ambassadorial nominee for Greece is seen as a nightmare by America-watchers in Greece and elsewhere
After an extended period of uncertainty over who would be tapped, on October 8 US President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate influential Democratic fundraiser George Tsunis to be his envoy to Greece.
The Tsunis case is controversial for several reasons and has triggered an intense reaction in the Washington foreign policy community where the dispatch of a non-career Foreign Service Officer to a potential hotspot in a strategic location for NATO and the EU may become a major Biden Administration blunder, coming at a time when the Afghanistan fiasco is fresh in everyone’s minds.
Politics over diplomacy?
What makes the case even more interesting is that Mr. Tsunis had a previous ambassadorial nomination fall apart in a particularly public venue during the Obama Administration. He was nominated by President Obama as his envoy to Norway in 2013 but during his disastrous 2014 confirmation hearing he incorrectly referred to Norway’s leader as “president” instead of “prime minister,” along with referring to a parliamentary coalition party as a “fringe group,” mistakes which American proponents of sending career diplomats to ambassadorial posts will never forget and is now so deeply linked with Tsunis’ political career that it may be the sole fact most observers currently remember about the candidate.
After that fiasco, the Norwegian American community based in Minnesota was particularly energetic in demanding his nomination be cancelled, eventually causing Tsunis to withdraw.
Tsunis is the son of Greek immigrants and is said to speak fluent Greek, but that particular heritage does not guarantee his acceptance among key elements of Greek society. This is because an element of class discrimination lingers against those individuals from the lower classes who left the country in difficult times, and often these Greeks of the Diaspora have little understanding of day-to-day life in Greece.
This is also the case in many European countries where complicated diaspora politics could fill several books, but the core issue is simple – the children of poor immigrants who somehow found success abroad are not seen as qualified to advise today’s elected leaders about current Greek political life and foreign relations, which is what American ambassadors are routinely accused of in any event.