Statecraft

Shanahan Finishes His Four-Month Audition for Defense Secretary

After keeping him in the audition phase for more than four months, the White House finally announced President Donald Trump’s intent to nominate Patrick Shanahan to drop the acting in his secretary-of-defense job title and make it official. He is likely to be confirmed by the Republican-held Senate, which means he will formally take leadership of a massive bureaucracy trying to fundamentally change its approach to dealing with the world’s most pressing threats. But not everyone is convinced that he’s the best man for the job.

The Pentagon is attempting a radical shift, turning its attention to preparing for potential conflict with a powerful rival such as Russia or China after two decades focused on counterterrorism. Experts and officials warn that the consuming War on Terror has left the country dangerously unprepared to deal with other threats—all while Russia and China have spent the past two decades observing America’s weaknesses and building their own arsenals to exploit them.