CJCS

The Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs: An Unequal Dialogue in Which Direction?

The Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs: An Unequal Dialogue in Which Direction?

Senators will soon be evaluating the President’s nominees to replace James Mattis as Secretary of Defense and General Joseph Dunford as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They will have no shortage of material from which to draw tough questions for each new nominee, but they may want to add relations between the two top staffs at the Pentagon to the list. In its recent report, the National Defense Strategy Commission raised concerns over the relationship between the civilians of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military officers under the Joint Chiefs of Staff.