Five challenges ahead for Defense Secretary Nominee Ashton Carter
- Get link
- Other Apps
If Ashton Carter is confirmed as the next Defense Secretary by the Senate, he faces both a daunting to-do list and a limited time frame in which to operate - the final two years of President Obama's term.
The president nominated Carter, a former deputy defense secretary and longtime Pentagon hand, to take over the helm of the Defense Department after Chuck Hagel resigned in November. Carter goes before the Senate Armed Services Wednesday for his confirmation hearings. Although he does not face any significant opposition in Congress, he will still have to address the challenges that lie ahead for the department.
"It's hard coming in at this stage of a presidency in part because its hard to make major muscle movements," said CBS News Senior National Security Analyst Juan Zarate. "What you have is somebody who can manage the Pentagon, who understands it, who is going to have the confidence of the White House. But he may not be able to deviate that far afield from the parameters of policy coming out of the White House."
"He's going to be a very good secretary of defense, but he's not going to be a revolutionary secretary of defense, and that's less to do with who Ash Carter is and more to do with when he's coming in and the constraints he's under," Zarate added.
Here is a look at the five biggest challenges he faces:
Ongoing war theaters
Although the war in Afghanistan is winding down next year, and the Iraq War was formally concluded years ago, the U.S. still faces significant military challenges abroad. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) controls a significant swath of territory in the Middle East and has wiped away much of the postwar stability the U.S. left behind in 2011. Many people have voiced concerns about a rise in violence in Afghanistan as well as U.S. troops hand over the reigns to Afghan security forces.
"Afghanistan and Iraq still remain on the secretary of defense's plate in terms of determining our force posture. Are we going to have more boots on the ground to deal with the threat of ISIS? What happens with the drawdown of our troops in Afghanistan post 2016? Are we going to leave residual forces to train and equip as well as to fight a counterterrorism mission?" Zarate said. All are questions Carter will have to answer.
Gregory Sanders, a fellow in the National Security Program on Industry and Resources and the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) wrote in a briefing about Carter's agenda that he will have to "articulate a clear vision and lay the groundwork for future programmatic and policy decisions." In particular, CSIS has warned that research and development has borne the brunt of recent defense cuts and needs more attention in coming years.
Guantanamo Bay
Closing the Guantanamo Bay prison facility is a pledge that dates back to Mr. Obama's first day in office, but still faces significant opposition in Congress. And Carter will have a direct say in the matter.
"In some ways Ash Carter falls right into the heart of the Guantanamo debate because the secretary of defense has to provide those assurances and certifications if any of the individuals are transferred, and frankly, has to be part of the architecture as to what the closure ultimately looks like," Zarate said.
Hagel was perceived as more reluctant to transfer detainees out of the prison and into other countries, which would have put him in conflict with the administration. Given that the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, is looking to block efforts to close the prison, it is certainly an issue Carter will face at his hearing.
China
China's rise as a military power in the east is an issue that needs attention from the secretary of defense, and Zarate said Carter will have to grapple with questions about the U.S. force posture and how the U.S. relates to China as its main military competitor in the global arena.
John Schaus, a fellow in the CSIS International Security Program, wrote that Hagel was the member of the Obama administration who spent the most time and attention on the region with Secretary of State John Kerry heavily involved in the Middle East. The next defense secretary will have to play that role as well.
"Sustaining this effort to craft a security order in Asia that makes room for a rising China without crowding out rising countries in Southeast and South Asia will fall to the next Defense Secretary. He or she will need to re-assure Asian allies, deepen partnerships, and sustain dialogue with China," Schaus wrote. The goal, Schaus said, should be to develop proposals on maritime awareness, a more deliberate military exercise program, and cooperative technology research and development by the fall 2015 Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers meeting.
Cyber security
The hacking of Sony Pictures and recent cyber attacks on companies like Target and Home Depot has brought cybersecurity to the forefront of U.S. attention, just as Carter gets ready to take over the Defense Department. With cyber command and the National Security Agency under Defense Department control, Carter will have to consider the best way for the U.S. to protect its defense systems and contractors and craft a larger strategy for dealing with an environment where cyber tools and warfare are proliferating, Zarate said.
Budget
The Defense Department has now seen years of budget cuts due to sequestration, and Carter will likely face the same challenges that Hagel had in terms of securing funding for all of the department's priorities. Still, having spent seven years at the Pentagon, part of that time in charge of procurement, Carter knows the Defense budget better than most.
One major challenge he will have is defending President Obama's $585 billion FY2016 budget request on Capitol Hill even though he had no role in crafting it, wrote Ryan Crotty, the Deputy Director for Defense Budget Analysis in the International Security Program at CSIS. But he will have a hand in the FY2017 budget, the last of the Obama's administration.
"The job of the next Secretary Defense in the budget sphere will be to continue to hold the line that the administration has pushed for the last three years: the need to budget above the Budget Control Act caps and to make cuts and reforms that help rationalize and balance the defense program. Success of even these modest aims ultimately rests in the hands of Congress," Crotty wrote.
Zarate said he will also have to think strategically about the Defense Department's future despite the budget crunch.
"We need to be investing for our capabilities not for tomorrow or the next year but for five, ten, 15, 20 years down the road to make sure we have not just the right personnel and the right training but the right type of equipment and technology that keeps us ahead of the enemies," Zarate said.
© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Read the whole story
· · · · ·
Killing of Jordanian pilot "will only serve to steel the international community's resolve to destroy" ISIS, White House says
Carter begins his confirmation hearings before the Senate Wednesday
Executions come hours after video was released purportedly showing Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 17
Train car, vehicle set ablaze at what governor calls "truly ugly and brutal" scene; one official "amazed" anyone escaped train car alive
Failed Iraqi suicide bomber executed after video purportedly shows Jordanian pilot being burned alive
Prominent cleric says God alone can punish by fire; another Muslim leader condemns the "abuse of Islam, the great religion of mercy"
Following his demagogic State of the Union speech, the Fiscal Year 2016 budget document released Monday is a further attempt by President Obama to posture as a populist advocate of taxing the wealthy and helping the “middle class,” while pursuing…
On Monday, the New York Times announced that the Obama administration is moving to directly arm the Ukrainian army and the fascistic militias supporting the NATO-backed regime in Kiev, after its recent setbacks in the offensive against pro-Russian separatist forces…
В ходе учебных мероприятий особое внимание было уделено вопросам инженерной разведки территории, обнаружению и обезвреживанию взрывных устройств, проделыванию проходов в минно-взрывных заграждениях.
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 18
В пунктах базирования Каспийской флотилии с корабельными расчётами постов противовоздушной обороны и авиацией ЮВО проведено совместное учение по отражению ударов средств воздушного нападения условного противника.
Обсуждались вопросы российско-сербского военного сотрудничества. Стороны подтвердили обоюдный настрой на дальнейшее наполнение его мероприятиями практической направленности.
We’ve long noted that Saudi Arabia is a huge supporter of terrorism. But the new Saudi king is particularly bad. Investors Business Daily notes: King Salman has a history of funding al-Qaida, and his son has been accused of knowing…
Washington planned and implemented Kiev’s coup. Obama admitted US “broker(ing) a deal to transition power in Ukraine.” Code language for ousting democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych. Replacing him with neo-Nazi mob rule. In December 2013, Assistant Secretary of State for…
by William Dunkerley Ukraine shot to the top of the U.S. news on Monday, February 2. In the proceeding week, the news had been occupied with a snowstorm that threatened to paralyze the U.S. Northeast; militant attacks, hostage situations, and…
Former US drone sensor operator Brandon Bryant admits he “couldn’t stand” himself for his participation in the country’s drone program for six years – firing on targets whose identities often went unconfirmed. Since 2001, and increasingly under the Obama administration,…
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 19
GR Editor’s Note: The data provided by Cyber Berkut remains to be confirmed On Jan. 28 the hacker group Cyber Berkut published a collection of documents taken from the computer of Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios.The papers contain information…
INTRODUCTION Brookings Institution has now issued a call for us to finance more firebombings, clusterbombings, and other support to the ethnic cleansing, which has been going on since Ukraine’s coup — the ethnic cleansing that’s occurring in the region of…
It is important to pay attention to the events in Latin America. Not only are the events there indicative of regional changes, but they are also indicative to events in Eurasia. The US decline in the Middle East and Washington’s…
There is a coup underway in Venezuela. The pieces are all falling into place like a bad CIA movie. At every turn a new traitor is revealed, a betrayal is born, full of promises to reveal the smoking gun that…
As Hillary Clinton further delays the announcement of her 2016 run for the White House, more news has broken regarding her role in the 2011 disastrous intervention in Libya, which set the stage for the 2012 Benghazi attacks where we…
Becoming the first credentialed, well-known media insider to step forward and state publicly that he was secretly a “propagandist,” an editor of a major German daily has said that he personally planted stories for the CIA. Saying he believes a…
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 20
The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) forces has found ammunition used exclusively in NATO countries that the Ukrainian Army is not usually equipped with, Deputy Donetsk Militia Commander Eduard Basurin said Tuesday. “These types of ammunition are designed for NATO countries.…
from the pipe-bomb-or-placard?-better-safe-than-sorry. dept The NYPD has created yet another special unit to handle the myriad problems that arise from being terrorists’ occasional target. The SRG (Strategic Response Group) will be tasked with handling certain situations, most of which did …
- Get link
- Other Apps
Comments
Post a Comment