WASHINGTON, December 6 (Sputnik) – US President Barack Obama’s new nominee
to be Secretary of Defense will focus on Pentagon’s budget, not changes
in military strategy, experts from the Washington-based Henry L.
Stimson Center think tank told Sputnik following the announcement
on Friday that Ashton Carter is slated to run the Department of Defense.
“Carter is a technocrat more than a strategist,” Barry Blechman, a
distinguished fellow and national security expert at the Stimson Center,
said. “The most important changes he individually will be responsible
for will be reforms in the budget process.”
Carter will come to the Pentagon as it is faced with reduced defense
spending and congressionally mandated sequestration – a 10-percent cut
to the budget. Congress has been funding the Defense Department
on continuing resolutions — or short-term budgets — for several years,
making planning all the more difficult for the Pentagon.
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