The next defense secretary will face a myriad of big challenges: the war in Ukraine, turmoil in the Middle East, and the growing military threat from China. And then there’s what’s closer to home: deploying U.S. troops to the southwest border to solve immigration problems and revitalizing America’s military industrial base to confront global adversaries.
Ukraine
US President-elect Donald Trump has said little about how to resolve the conflict. But JD Vance was elected vice president made a plan this would allow the Russians to retain the Ukrainian territory that their forces had seized.
Mr. Trump’s special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, he said last week said that he would try to mediate a deal with Moscow within 100 days after the inauguration of his leader. Critics fear that a rushed deal could cap Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine – about 20 percent of the country.
One of the biggest unknowns for Ukraine is whether the Trump administration and Europe will provide any security guarantees to prevent Russia from seizing more territory.
“A Russian military victory in Ukraine will be somewhat similar to the disaster of the first year of the Biden administration in Afghanistan,” said Seth G. Jones, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Middle East
What will be the fate of 2,000 US soldiers helping to fight the Islamic State in northeastern Syria?
In late 2018 Mr Trump ordered all US forces to leave the missionIt led Jim Mattis to resign as Secretary of Defense in protest. A subsequent compromise overturned that decision, leaving a smaller US force in a smaller corner of that part of Syria.
After the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government to the Islamist coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham last month, turmoil in Syria and Islamic State-inspired attack in New Orleans Any immediate troop changes are unlikely on New Year’s Day, but the long-term future is uncertain.
Meanwhile, negotiators for both President Biden and Mr. Trump are working together to reach an agreement before Inauguration Day to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that would free some of the remaining hostages.
If that effort fails, the next defense minister could try to influence Israel’s air campaign and ground attacks against the remaining Hamas fighters in Gaza.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, a retired four-star general, has repeatedly warned Israel that unless it does more to protect civilians, it could face a “strategic defeat” that would make the country less secure.
