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The Lawfare Podcast

General Austin as Secretary of Defense

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

Law, Terrorism, History, Politics, News, National Security, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Diplomacy, International Law, International Relations, Constitutional Law, Rule Of Law, Current Events, Government, Military

4.76.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President-elect Joe Biden has selected a new defense secretary, retired general Lloyd Austin, former commander of Central Command. The selection has received somewhat mixed reviews, and to discuss why, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Brookings senior fellow Mike O'Hanlon, a defense policy analyst, and Kori Schake, the head of defense and foreign policy at the American Enterprise Institute. They talked about why people are upset about General Austin's nomination, his background, the experience he has and doesn't have, who would have been a better choice and whether it matters that this is the second administration in a row that begins by putting a retired general at the head of the Pentagon.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair

0:07.2

podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair.

0:14.7

That's patreon.com slash LawFair.

0:18.2

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair

0:25.6

no bull and the aftermath.

0:34.1

We overestimate the value of specific defense knowledge.

0:39.6

We underestimate the value of running a $740 billion a year corporation with two million

0:47.9

employees.

0:49.8

And military service is to some extent good training for that, but it's by no means the

0:56.4

only good training ground for it.

0:59.7

And by constraining the aperture so narrowly, we excluded a whole bunch of potentially

1:06.1

qualified people.

1:08.6

I'm Benjamin Wittis and this is the LawFair podcast December 9, 2020.

1:15.6

And Alex Joe Biden has selected a new Secretary of Defense, retired General Lloyd Austin,

1:24.0

former commander of Central Command.

1:27.1

The selection has received somewhat mixed reviews, so we thought we'd have a conversation

1:33.0

about why joining me in the Jungle Studio yesterday morning was my Brookings colleague

1:39.1

Mike O'Hanlon, Defense Policy Analyst extraordinaire, and in the afternoon, Corey Shockey, the head

1:47.8

of Defense and Foreign Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, we wove these two conversations

1:54.6

together.

1:56.0

So it sounds like we're all in the Jungle Studio at the same time, even though we weren't.

2:01.7

Why are people upset about General Austin's nomination?

...

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