Austin announces global force posture review

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced a new global force posture review of the U.S. "military footprint, resources, strategy and missions."

The review will be led by Amanda Dory, the acting under secretary of defense for policy, "in close consultation" with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, according to a statement from Austin.

The review "will inform my advice to the commander-in-chief about how we best allocate military forces in pursuit of national interests," Austin said. "We will consult our allies and partners as we conduct this review. As I said on my first day in the job, no one succeeds at this business alone."

The review is expected to assess the Trump administration's decisions to reduce and relocate U.S. troops in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

"President Biden's call today for American leadership on the world stage, and in particular his belief that diplomacy should be our first tool of choice, is reassuring not only to the men and women of the Department of Defense, but to our fellow citizens as well," Austin said. "As President Kennedy once observed, diplomacy and defense are not mutually-exclusive. They complement one another. They each make the other stronger. And each alone will likely fail."