United States Deputy Secretary of State

The Deputy Secretary of State of the United States is the principal deputy to the secretary of state. The current deputy Secretary of State is Wendy Ruth Sherman, serving since April 2021 under secretary of state Antony Blinken. If the secretary of state resigns or dies, the deputy secretary of state becomes acting secretary of state until the President nominates and the Senate confirms a replacement. The position was created in 1972. Prior to July 13, 1972, the Under Secretary of State had been the second ranking officer of the Department of State. The position was most recently held by Stephen Biegun.
The State Department is the only federal Cabinet-level agency that had two co-equal Deputy Secretaries in its history. The second Deputy Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, served as the "first assistant" for the purposes of the Vacancies Reform Act, but both deputy secretaries had full delegated authority to act for the secretary, if not otherwise prohibited by law. They are listed with a "B" designation, below, during the years of President Barack Obama, under Secretary Hillary Clinton and Secretary John Kerry. These Deputies were Jack Lew, who, after almost two years at the State Department, left to become Obama's Chief of Staff and then later Treasury Secretary in 2013; Thomas Nides, who had only pledged 2 years of service and then subsequently returned to be the chief operating officer at Morgan Stanley; and Heather Higginbottom, who filled out Barack Obama's second term under Secretary Kerry as the first female Deputy Secretary of State. This practice was ended under President Donald Trump.
Certain Deputy Secretaries of State went on to become appointed as the Secretary of State, such as Warren Christopher in 1992 and Lawrence Eagleburger in 1993 under President William Jefferson Clinton, and Antony Blinken, as the Secretary of State under President Joseph Biden in 2021.