Joe Biden likely to break barriers, pick Michele Flournov as first woman to head Pentagon

Washington: US President-elect Joe Biden is predicted to take a historic step and choose a lady to go the Pentagon for the primary time, shattering one of many few remaining obstacles to ladies within the division and the presidential Cupboard.

Michele Flournoy, a politically average Pentagon veteran, is regarded by US officers and political insiders as a best choice for the place.

Her choice would come on the heels of a tumultuous Pentagon interval that has seen 5 males maintain the highest job beneath President Donald Trump. The newest protection secretary to go was Mark Esper, who was fired by Trump on Monday after pushing again on points together with troop withdrawals and the usage of the navy to quell civilian unrest.

If confirmed, Flournoy would face a future that’s anticipated to contain shrinking Pentagon budgets and potential navy involvement within the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine.

Democrats have lengthy sought to call a lady to the highest put up in a division that did not open all fight jobs to feminine service members till about 5 years in the past. Flournoy had been the anticipated alternative of Hillary Clinton if she had gained the 2016 election. Her identify surfaced early as a front-runner for Biden’s Cupboard, stated officers who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate personnel issues.

Seen as a gentle hand who favors robust navy cooperation overseas, Flournoy, 59, has served a number of instances within the Pentagon, beginning within the Nineties and most lately because the undersecretary of protection for coverage from 2009 to 2012. She serves on the board of Booz Allen Hamilton, a protection contractor, which might elevate considerations from some lawmakers. However her average views would doubtless guarantee huge bipartisan help ready that requires Senate affirmation.

Few different names have been talked about, although former Division of Homeland Safety chief Jeh Johnson was listed as a doable alternative at one level. Selecting a lady could be in step with Biden’s pledge to have a various Cupboard.

She has been outspoken on American overseas and protection coverage, notably over the previous yr. She favors nearer worldwide cooperation after 4 years of a Trump White Home that touted an “America First” coverage and was extra distrustful and significant of allies.

“Whoever the following president is,” she stated in March, “whether or not it’s a second Trump time period or Vice President Biden or whoever it’s, one of many high agenda gadgets goes to attempt to, I feel, restore a few of that notion” that America could not be a dependable accomplice. “However I don’t suppose it’s going to be straightforward or occur in a single day. I feel it’s going to take a number of work over a variety of years to get well that belief and that standing.”

She has additionally cautioned in opposition to drastic, rapid adjustments.

“Some of the harmful tendencies is for — after a change of administration, notably when there’s a change of occasion — for the brand new workforce to return in and use the time period ‘repudiation.’ However to return in and assume that every thing their predecessors did was mistaken, you recognize, they throw the infant out with the bathwater, mainly, and so they overcorrect in one other course,” she stated in a Hudson Institute discussion board.

Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine two-star basic and former workers director of the Senate Armed Companies Committee beneath then-Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, stated lately that he regards Flournoy as “extremely well-qualified” to steer the Pentagon.

The Protection Division is one in all three Cupboard businesses — the others being Treasury and Veterans Affairs — which have by no means been led by a lady. A few of the 28 males who’ve held the highest protection job because it was created in 1947, together with three who served in Trump’s administration — Jim Mattis, Esper and present appearing Secretary Christopher Miller — have been navy veterans. Flournoy didn’t serve within the navy.

Like Mattis and Esper, Flournoy views China as essentially the most vital long-term problem to American predominance on the world stage. In July, she stated the USA is dropping its navy technological benefit over key opponents like China and that reversing this development have to be the Pentagon’s high precedence.

She has, nevertheless, additionally warned in opposition to abandoning the Center East and as a substitute advocates “extra modest ranges of steady presence” there. For instance, she has backed a restricted position in Afghanistan that focuses extra on countering the fear menace and fewer on rebuilding the nation.

“We need to cut back our dedication, however we need to do it in a approach that’s sensible and that safeguards our pursuits within the course of,” she stated in March about Afghanistan, including that she hopes “we do not simply minimize and run.” Trump has pushed for a full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by the tip of the yr, however to date the Pentagon has no orders to do this.

On North Korea, she stated in an October on-line discussion board that whereas nuclear disarmament ought to stay the last word purpose, she finds it “exhausting to see” Kim Jong Un agreeing to surrender all his nuclear weapons, which she stated he sees as his regime’s “survival card.”

On Iran, Flournoy has argued for a revised strategy of deterring the Islamic Republic by breaking the acquainted sample of sending extra American forces to the Gulf in response to Iranian provocations, because the Trump administration did in Might 2019 after what it referred to as credible threats to U.S. pursuits within the area.

Flournoy is a co-founder of Westexec Advisors, a consulting agency that gives recommendation and geopolitical danger evaluation to company purchasers. She works with a combination of former senior authorities officers — together with Antony Blinken, a former deputy secretary of state and at present Biden’s high overseas coverage adviser — and navy consultants equivalent to retired Military Gen. Vincent Brooks, who led U.S. forces in Korea till 2019.

In 2007, Flournoy helped create a suppose tank, the Heart for a New American Safety.