Thursday, April 25, 2024
Thursday, April 25, 2024
President-elect Biden intends to nominate former Pentagon official Kathleen Hicks to serve as deputy defense secretary, according to an announcement from Biden's team.
Hicks is currently the head of Biden's Pentagon transition team. She previously served in the Obama administration as principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy and deputy under secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces, where she led the development of the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance and the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.
She also works as an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Analysts and insiders observing the transition process have said Hicks, who is seen as an expert in Pentagon organization, was a leading candidate for the No. 2 DOD job, especially since Biden picked retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for defense secretary.
Along with Hicks, Biden intends to nominate Colin Kahl, another former Obama administration official, to be under secretary of defense for policy.
Kahl also works as an analyst at CSIS and on Biden’s Pentagon transition team. He previously served in the Obama administration as Biden’s national security adviser and as deputy assistant to President Obama. Kahl also previously was deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East from 2009 to 2011.
Meanwhile, sources said Kelly Magsamen, a former DOD and State Department official, has been tapped to serve as Austin’s chief of staff.
Hicks and Kahl “have the broad experience and crisis-tested judgment necessary to help tackle the litany of challenges we face today, and all those we may confront tomorrow,” Biden said in a statement. “They will be trusted partners to me, the vice president-elect, and Secretary-designate Austin -- as well as our dedicated civilian and military team -- as we work to restore responsible American leadership on the world stage.”
Biden’s selection of Austin, who requires a special waiver from Congress to serve as defense secretary because he has been retired from military service for less than seven years, has raised questions on Capitol Hill about the potential erosion of civilian leadership at DOD.
Austin has pledged to run DOD as a civilian, not a general.
Today, Austin said in a statement Hicks and Kahl share his “strong belief that we need empowered civilian voices serving alongside military leaders at the Department of Defense to ensure we are always accountable to the American people.”