BY LARA SELIGMAN
Frustrated past times lack of influence together with disheartened past times U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, Department of Defense civilians are heading for the door, leaving key positions unfilled inward a Pentagon increasingly run past times active-duty or retired state of war machine officers. The Office of the Secretary of Defense, or OSD for short, is the civilian arm of the department, crucial inward assisting the secretarial assistant inward policy development, operations planning, resources management, together with more. OSD is traditionally a house where people pass entire careers—one onetime official likened it to “joining a priesthood”—but today it appears to survive eroding at all levels. Interviews with a dozen electrical flow together with onetime Department of Defense civilians discover an increasingly hollow together with demoralized workforce, with staffers feeling they no longer select a topographic point at the table.
Civilian oversight of the state of war machine “was already weakening inward the terminal administration, together with I intend it basically vicious off a cliff,” said i onetime Defense Department official who requested anonymity. “It sucks to piece of work inward an business office where nobody listens to you.”
At to the lowest degree nine senior officials select left the subdivision inward the past times year, including Sally Donnelly, Secretary of Defense James Mattis’s senior advisor, together with Elbridge Colby, who co-led evolution of the department’s premier strategic planning guidance, the National Defense Strategy. Most recently, inward Oct three senior leaders working on international policy departed: Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Affairs Robert Karem, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Alan Patterson, together with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe together with NATO Policy Thomas Goffus. Other key positions inward OSD are vacant or filled inward an acting capacity, including: main direction officer; deputy assistant secretarial assistant of defence forcefulness for East Asia; assistant deputy of defence forcefulness for strategic plans together with capabilities; together with undersecretary of defence forcefulness for personnel together with readiness.
The attrition has caused describe concern exterior the Defense Department every bit well. An independent, congressionally mandated review of the National Defense Strategy released this calendar week highlighted the “relative imbalance of civilian together with state of war machine voices” on critical national safety issues, together with urged the subdivision to opposite this “unhealthy” trend.
“Constructive approaches to whatsoever of the foregoing issues must survive rooted inward salubrious civil-military relations. Yet civilian voices select been relatively muted on issues at the take in of U.S. defence forcefulness together with national safety policy, undermining the concept of civilian control,” the commissioners wrote.
The degradation of the Defense Department’s civilian leadership dates to the Obama administration. Budget cuts nether the Budget Control Act of 2011 led to a serial of hiring freezes together with cuts to the civil service, which depleted the workforce together with contributed to poor morale, said Brian McKeon, who served every bit the principal deputy nether secretarial assistant of defence forcefulness for policy from 2014 until 2017.
The cuts gutted the department’s civil service, leading to a workforce that is stretched thin, with few resources for maintaining deep expertise inward specific issues.
“People are beingness treated every bit interchangeable widgets, every bit opposed to cultivating deep subject-matter expertise, together with every bit a outcome roughly experience the establishment stopped beingness trusted,” said Kathleen McInnis, a nonresident senior boyfriend at the Atlantic Council together with author of The Heart of War: Misadventures inward the Pentagon, who served inward OSD from 2006 to 2010.
While the tendency began years ago, officials say it has accelerated nether Trump. Turnover at the two-year grade of whatsoever direction is normal, but observers together with insiders say the number of people leaving OSD afterwards less than a twelvemonth together with a one-half of service is unusual.
The exodus, peculiarly inward the offices focused on regional policy, is jump upward at to the lowest degree inward portion with Trump’s volatile unusual policy together with handling of allies, said Kori Schake, the deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“The people who piece of work on alliance issues, peculiarly alliance issues inward Europe, are extraordinarily downhearted because of the president’s behavior,” said Schake, citing Trump’s incendiary rhetoric during the most recent NATO summit inward July. Schake served inward a multifariousness of positions inward multiple administrations throughout the 1990s together with 2000s, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, OSD Policy, the National Security Council, together with the State Department.
The fear that Secretary of Defense James Mattis volition either resign or survive ousted is also driving senior civilians inward the Pentagon out the door, Schake noted. “Most of the civilians who came to piece of work inward the Pentagon did thus with trepidation nigh the president but an enormous amount of trust together with admiration for Secretary Mattis,” said Schake. “It is understandable that people would worry nigh beingness the terminal someone aboard.”
Another employment is the president’s hostile rhetoric toward America’s civil service at large. Both inward the Pentagon together with the State Department, officials are “incredibly frustrated past times hearing the president speak nigh the civil service every bit the deep state, every bit adversaries together with enemies—as opposed to people who instruct upward every solar daytime together with essay really, actually difficult to practice their best for national security,” said Loren DeJonge Schulman, the deputy managing director of studies at the Center for a New American Security. She served on the National Security Council together with inward the Defense Department betwixt 2006 together with 2014.
“That’s an enormous morale challenge,” she stressed.
One electrical flow direction official attributed the exodus to John Rood, the Pentagon’s top policy official together with a onetime Lockheed Martin executive. “He’s a bad manager together with he’s a micromanager,” the official said, adding that his influence is leading to “a totally dysfunctional OSD Policy where people are leaving together with you lot can’t recruit goodness people.”
Another recurring theme is the increasingly toxic dynamic betwixt OSD together with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a tendency that officials say began inward the Obama direction but has accelerated nether Trump. The Trump direction initially had problem filling top positions at OSD—Rood’s job, undersecretary of defence forcefulness for policy, for example, was vacant for a twelvemonth afterwards the president’s inauguration—due both to the large puddle of “Never Trump” Republicans together with a strict White House vetting process. Members of the Joint Staff, including Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who worked closely with the Mattis during their fourth dimension inward the Marine Corps, together with other high-ranking officers moved speedily to fill upward that gap.
“The Joint Staff together with the [combatant commanders] are having a plain day,” said i Pentagon official, who spoke on status of anonymity. “They don’t respond whatsoever requests, they experience emboldened, together with Policy is actually struggling.”
In particular, sources say Dunford has tried to centralize decision-making on state of war machine forcefulness allotment across theaters inward the Joint Staff. The independent review of the National Defense Strategy backed upward that claim together with urged the Department of Defense to ensure civilian voices select a say.
“Put simply, allocating priority—and forces—across theaters of warfare is non alone a state of war machine matter,” the commissioners wrote. “Unless global integration is nested nether higher-order guidance from civilians, an travail to centralize defence forcefulness direction nether the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff may succeed operationally but make profound—and potentially catastrophic—strategic problems.”
A spokesman for the Joint Staff, Col. Patrick Ryder, said the grouping has “a really goodness working relationship” with OSD Policy together with the 2 collaborate at multiple levels daily. When it comes to providing forcefulness direction or “plans recommendations” to the secretary, every Joint Staff recommendation is coordinated through OSD Policy, he said.
Ryder took number with the commissioners’ characterization of forcefulness allocation, proverb that OSD Policy is “deeply involved” inward global forcefulness direction amongst the Joint Staff.
“It is only non truthful that Gen. Dunford is attempting to centralize decision-making on state of war machine forcefulness allocations across all theaters,” Ryder said. “The Joint Staff’s global integration efforts are all focused on ensuring the Secretary of Defense together with policymakers are able to brand globally informed decisions. Everything nosotros practice is done nether the principles of civilian command of the military.”
Rood also disputed the characterization of tension betwixt OSD together with the Joint Staff.
“OSD together with Joint Staff part a strong relationship. There isn’t a solar daytime that goes past times that my squad together with I aren’t working closely across a arrive at of issues with the Joint Staff. The Pentagon is a large place, but you lot would never know it from the frequent interactions nosotros select all day,” Rood said.“We piece of work together hand-in-hand on a multifariousness of topics including global forcefulness management. This collaboration is essential to the successful implementation of our national defence forcefulness strategy.”
Current together with onetime officials are sympathetic to Mattis’s position. It was only natural for Mattis to initially lean on the familiar state of war machine community land of import civilian positions remained vacant, they told Foreign Policy. One lately departed Defense official noted that from the start, Mattis tried difficult to brand certain OSD Policy was fully resourced together with included inward discussions. While Mattis was initially challenged to fill upward key civilian positions, today OSD leadership is “on a path” to total health, the official said.
Nonetheless, many believe the imbalance inward civil versus state of war machine leadership inward the Pentagon is detrimental to the department’s powerfulness to formulate policy. Evan Montgomery, who served every bit a civilian on the Joint Staff for the terminal few months of the Obama direction together with the outset twelvemonth of the Trump administration, acknowledged that the tension at times became unhealthy.
“I intend the Joint Staff believed the Secretary of Defense was beingness underserved past times OSD. It was capable of filling that gap together with tried to,” said Montgomery, who is similar a shot a senior boyfriend at the Center for Strategic together with Budgetary Assessments. “It might’ve gotten ahead of its skis on roughly issues, which created tension.”
A minute onetime Defense Department official who requested anonymity said Mattis has filled his forepart business office with active-duty state of war machine officials together with veterans. For example, Mattis chose a two-star Navy admiral, Rear Adm. Craig Faller, who has since been nominated to caput U.S. Southern Command, to survive his senior state of war machine advisor, together with a retired Navy two-star, Kevin Sweeney, to survive his main of staff. Both worked for Mattis during his tenure every bit caput of U.S. Central Command.
“It felt similar our influence declined,” said a lately departed OSD Policy official. “It’s non uncommon to lose arguments, but it seemed similar nosotros were losing to a greater extent than often, or worse it felt similar nosotros weren’t fifty-fifty portion of the conversation. We were exactly bypassed.”
The minute onetime Defense official described a full general perception amid Pentagon civilians that the secretarial assistant does non fully trust or rely on OSD policy.
“The secretarial assistant together with his staff are comfortable with the linguistic communication of the Joint Staff, [but] you lot select to, at to the lowest degree at first, brand room at the tabular array for the civilian side because they are going to convey institutional knowledge,” according to the outset onetime Defense Department official. While the official noted that the employment began nether onetime Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, “It is much, much worse now. I intend people experience similar they are non valued inward this direction at large.”
The halt result, experts worry, is that civilian command of the state of war machine is beingness undercut. This fundamental concept, required past times constabulary inward the United States, dates to the country’s earliest days, when the Founding Fathers wrote it into the Constitution. At the centre of civilian command of the state of war machine is a strong civil service, which acts every bit the “brain trust together with historic retentivity of national safety policy” through changes inward administrations, said Mara Karlin, a nonresident senior boyfriend at the Brookings Institution, who served inward the Pentagon from 2004 to 2009 together with and then over again from 2012 to the halt of the Obama administration.
“At the halt of the day, every bit nosotros all know thorny national safety issues don’t exactly involve the military; political-military considerations invariably bleed into them,” she said. “If the senior military’s leadership views are going to survive exactly constrained to state of war machine advice … who is thinking nigh issues from that broader perspective?”
As a lately retired general, Mattis is inward a tricky province of affairs when it comes to maintaining the appropriate residue betwixt the civilian together with state of war machine side of national safety policy. Although Schake, who co-edited a book with Mattis on civil-military relations, lauded the secretary’s efforts to shield the Pentagon from politics, she criticized his alternative to remain out of earth eye.
“He is non spending plenty fourth dimension or travail talking nigh the wars,” Schake said. “I intend it shows inward the agency lots of folks, especially people who select fought inward the wars or loved ones of people who select fought inward the wars, experience adrift.”
Robbie Gramer contributed reporting.
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