Why is the Pentagon Bleeding Top Officials?
On December 16, the Defense Department’s senior advisor for international cooperation in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, announced her resignation from her position at the Pentagon. Ambassador Kaidanow, who assumed her current post in September of 2018, is a longtime State Department official, having served as the first U.S. ambassador to Kosovo, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. She then became Coordinator for Counterterrorism, then moved to the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, serving as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary before moving to the Defense Department in 2018.
Kaidanow was the fifth Pentagon official to tender their resignation in the prior seven days, and the sixth in under a month. This lengthy list includes four positions that will require Senate confirmation, including Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs James Stewart, Assistant Secretary for Indo-Pacific Affairs Randy Schriver, and Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Kari Bingen. The other resigning official who will not require Senate approval to replace is Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Steven Walker.
The four positions listed above requiring Senate approval are in addition to fourteen other vacant positions also requiring confirmation from the Senate. Meaning that Pentagon officials are leaving faster than the positions can be filled – an alarming trend that is leaving many questioning what exactly is going on within the Department of Defense.
Many former officials, who have been willing to speak to the media regarding their departures, seem to be pointing their fingers toward top Defense Department policy official John Rood, implying a very abrasive leadership methodology that has created an extremely toxic work environment. Rood’s reputation is also being blamed for the department’s inability to fill many of their vacant positions.
Fortunately for Rood, many former and current officials point their finger elsewhere: Straight toward the administration itself. Recruiting talent has been extremely challenging since the beginning of the Trump administration, partially because many national security experts signed “Never Trump” oaths, thus disqualifying them from taking any role within the administration, and even many who did not sign the now infamous letters refuse to work for the administration in any capacity.
Many also point their fingers toward the resignation of former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who departed the administration after years of tension with President Trump and his cabinet – tensions that heavily increased after the unceremonious departure of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who he felt was his only real ally within the administration. Since Mattis’ departure, he has been extremely critical of the administration, going as far to say that Trump was “of limited cognitive ability” and was a man of “very dubious character.”
General Mattis is incredibly respected among the military, among national security and defense experts professionals, and is also well respected among both Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress and the general public. Mattis, though critical of past administrations at times, has never been so vehemently opposed to a particular president or his cabinet. Mattis has objectively criticized, and objectively praised administrations going back to George H.W. Bush. This review of the administration coming from such a generally respected individual has been seen as an obvious reason for the department’s inability to fill these vacant slots.
Whether a toxic work environment is to blame, or a thin recruitment pool due to the reputation of the President and his administration, there are certainly problems within the Department of Defense, and clearly changes need to be made in order to attract the best talent for the positions available. Attracting the best possible and highest quality candidates clearly needs to be the top priority for the department responsible for the entirety of our national security infrastructure.
The Seventh Floor 