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Blinken has been a central fixture in Bidenworld for decades. He was Biden's chief foreign policy adviser on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where his geopolitical convictions--and profile as a negotiator--were honed. He then followed Biden to the White House in Obama's first term, serving as the vice president's national security adviser. As deputy secretary of state, Blinken was a key figure in selling Congress on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

While secretary of state remains perhaps the most sought-after prize for which Blinken is a top contender, two sources familiar told The Daily Beast that he is also being reviewed for national security adviser and that Biden's decision would depend on whether he wants to keep one of his closest political hands nearby in the White House.

"Because he's so close to Biden and has been for years, that kind of relationship usually leads first to national security adviser, then maybe you move over to State," the source familiar said. "The logic seems pretty strong."

Blinken was the Biden campaign's premiere foreign policy surrogate and spokesperson during the general election, presenting a Biden agenda as a return to traditionalist multilateralism, particularly on a restoration of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate-change accords. Biden himself has embraced that posture on the trail.

"Not a single one of the big challenges we face, whether it's climate change or mass migration or technological disruption or pandemic disease, can be met by any one country acting alone, even one as powerful as our own," Blinken told the "Intelligence Matters" podcast last month, echoing a line from Biden's July 2019 foreign policy speech.

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