Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology

For Pentagon, Biden Picks Two Obama-era Policy Veterans to Help Austin

Government Executive: President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of Kathleen Hicks to become the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian official, and Colin Kahl as undersecretary for policy, signals a coming shift in U.S. military priorities that likely include fewer warships and nuclear weapons, and a change in how the United States engages with allies. It also gives Biden’s controversial nominee for defense secretary, retired general Lloyd Austin, two experienced Obama-era civilian defense policy officials with progressive credentials that may serve to smooth things over with the president-elect’s early left-wing critics and buffer the defense industry’s influence with Pentagon leaders.

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