Biden’s Defense Transition Team is Bankrolled by the Military Industrial Complex
Jose Nino
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Joe Biden revealed a list of transition teams for the departments in his administration on November 10, 2020. Dave DeCamp of Antiwar.com observed that the Biden Pentagon transition team is made up of 23 people, “many of whom hail from hawkish think tanks”
Kathleen Hicks is leading the team. She was previously employed at the Pentagon under the Obama administration. Hicks recently worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a foreign policy think tank which is a recepient of contributions from weapons manufacturers such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon.
Additionally, CSIS is a recipient of contributions from foreign governments. Some of its largest donors are Japan, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Two other individuals who work for CSIS are on the transition team. Specifically, Andrew Hunter and Melissa Dalton, were employed in the Pentagon during the Obama administration.
CSIS analysts generally pen articles that call for a more active U.S. presence abroad. A few months ago, Hicks was a co-author of an Op-Ed in The Hill titled, “Pentagon Action to Withdraw from Germany Benefits Our Adversaries,” a piece critical of President Trump’s plan to reduce troops in Germany, which Biden could potentially reverse. For decades, Germany has been under American occupation. It is now a First World nation with a level-headed government that is more than capable of defending itself. However, the foreign policy establishment has other plans in mind and would rather maintain a de facto empire abroad.
Another two members of the transition team previously worked at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Susanna Blume was a former Pentagon employee and Ely Ratner served as deputy national security from 2015 to 2017 under then-Vice President Joe Biden.
CNAS also is the beneficiary of generous donations from weapons manufacturers, big business, and governments. Over the past year, CNAS received at least $500,000 from both the US State Department and Northrop Grumman. Some of CNAS’s other high profile donors include Facebook, Google,Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon.
All in all, the Biden administration looks to be another Swampy administration. Due to how connected Biden is to the defense industry, there’s no reason to believe that his foreign policy will be less restrained than Trump’s.
If Biden’s election is certified, expect the U.S. to go back to its usual neoconservative/neoliberal programming. At least with Trump, his administration has brought restrainers such as Douglas Macgregor on board as an adviser. The same cannot be said about a future Biden administration.
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