Lloyd J. Austin III: Nominee Currently: Christopher C. Miller (acting)
A Biden presidency is expected to strike a relatively steady course at the Pentagon, seeking to restore stability in military decision-making while reemphasizing alliances and pressing ahead with efforts to respond to China’s rise.Analysts expect Biden to continue troop cuts in Afghanistan, where violence is surging as diplomats seek to advance peace talks. But while the Trump administration has sent mixed messages about whether it will withdraw all troops in coming months in line with a U.S.-Taliban deal, Biden’s campaign has suggested it would opt to leave a small force to counter al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Promising a break with often chaotic foreign policy, the new administration is expected to strike a less adversarial stance against Iran, which Trump has depicted as a chief American adversary.
Lloyd J. Austin III
Retired Army general and U.S. Central Command chief
Austin rose to become a four-star general before retiring in 2016 as the chief of U.S. Central Command, from which he oversaw U.S. military operations across the Middle East for three years. His tenure there included the rise of the Islamic State, which began seizing cities in Iraq in 2014, and the U.S.-led military intervention to stop it. Austin’s selection could run into strong opposition from lawmakers who want to ensure civilian control of the military. As a recently retired military officer, he would have to gain a waiver from a law that states that any service member must be out of uniform for seven years before becoming defense secretary. If confirmed Austin would be the first Black Pentagon chief.
Source: Washington Post Reported by Missy Ryan and Seung Min Kim
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Lloyd Austin | Military Wiki | Fandom
Lloyd J. Austin III is a member of the Raytheon Technologies Board of Directors
2021-01-19 Lloyd Austin, Biden’s nominee to lead Pentagon, vows to take on extremism in the military
2021-01-19 Defense Secretary Confirmation Hearing The Senate Armed Services Committee held a confirmation hearing for General Lloyd Austin (Ret.) to serve as secretary of defense. Following witness statements by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (Obama administration, 2011-13) and Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in support of the general’s confirmation, the nominee answered a range of questions, including on China and Russia as global threats, the Middle East, cybersecurity, modernization efforts, sexual assault in the military, and the coronavirus pandemic. General Austin also answered questions regarding the upholding of civilian leadership of the Pentagon, for which the Senate needs to approve a waiver allowing the retired general to serve as defense secretary since he has not been a private citizen for more than seven years. Previously, the general served as commander of United States Central Command (Obama administration, 2013-16).
2021-01-12 Civilian-military concerns trail Biden’s defense secretary pick
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Jan. 12, some Democrats made it clear during the hearing that they would vote down a legal exception for Austin, who has only been retired for four years, but would consider his nomination.
Lindsay Cohn, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, said that another exception to statute that requires military officers be at least seven years removed from their service would set a dangerous precedent that moves the military further away from being under civilian control. “I think that the civilian side of the Department of Defense has lost both influence and respect over the last several years,”
Cohn said the trend impacts the department’s need for diverse experiences and the need for political aptitude in being able to think about national security in policy terms rather than practical military terms. “The military side is well represented in the debates internal to the department. What’s happening now is that the civilian side is less well-represented and that creates an imbalance, and I think produces worse policy,” she said.
2020-12-10 Iraq troop withdrawal was Gen. Austin’s failure — and Biden’s Biden is certainly in a position to know this. He was the Barack Obama administration’s point man on Iraq when he served as vice president. What’s puzzling is why Biden would select Austin because of — not in spite of — his role in the U.S. retreat from Iraq. The 2011 decision was a strategic blunder that Biden and Obama reversed in part in 2014, after an Islamic State army had taken Iraq’s second largest city and was threatening Baghdad.
A big reason why Obama agreed to a full withdrawal of forces from the country was because Austin, Biden and U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey failed to get the Iraqi parliament to approve a provision that stipulated U.S. forces remaining in Iraq would not be tried in Iraqi courts. This may seem like a technical detail, but almost all status-of-forces agreements with foreign countries include such provisions.
2020-12-08 Susan Collins, Jared Golden skeptical of Biden’s pick of retired general to lead Pentagon But getting him installed as Pentagon chief will be more complicated than usual. He must win a congressional waiver of a requirement that a defense secretary be out of uniform at least seven years before taking office. Austin retired in 2016 after 41 years in the Army.
Such a congressional waiver has been granted only twice: in 1950 for George Marshall and in 2017 for James Mattis, the retired Marine general who became President Donald Trump’s first defense secretary. Among Maine’s delegation, Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins both voted in favor of the waiver for Mattis, while Rep. Chellie Pingree of the 1st District voted against it.
Some prominent Democrats opposed the Mattis waiver outright, and among those who voted for it, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said then that he would not support another. Civilian control of the military is rooted in Americans’ historic wariness of large standing armies with the power to overthrow the government it is intended to serve. That is why the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and it reflects the rationale behind the prohibition against a recently retired military officer serving as defense secretary.
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