{"id":53919,"date":"2021-06-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/06\/23\/biden-picks-russia-pro-for-key-pentagon-post\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:58:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:58:56","slug":"biden-picks-russia-pro-for-key-pentagon-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2021\/06\/23\/biden-picks-russia-pro-for-key-pentagon-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden picks Russia pro for key Pentagon post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2015 President Joe Biden is set to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2021\/06\/22\/president-biden-announces-three-key-nominations-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">nominate<\/a> the chief executive of the U.S.-Russia Foundation and a former National Security Council official on Russia to be the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House announced Celeste Wallander as the intended nominee on Tuesday. If confirmed, she would have a key role overseeing U.S. military security cooperation and foreign military sales at a time when Biden has placed a new emphasis on bolstering America\u2019s alliances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wallander also served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and defense consulting firm WestExec Advisors lists her as a senior advisor there. If the Senate approves Wallander, she would advise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2021\/04\/27\/bidens-pentagon-policy-chief-colin-kahl-poised-for-confirmation-with-gop-senators-absent\/\" target=\"_blank\">Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The acting assistant secretary for international security affairs has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2021\/04\/16\/mara-karlin-selected-to-lead-pentagon-strategy-office\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mara Karlin<\/a>, Biden\u2019s nominee for assistant secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The international security role \u201cis truly one of the most important positions at the Pentagon,\u201d according to Arnold Punaro, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staff director and the chairman of the board of the National Defense Industrial Association. Wallander, he said, is \u201ca widely-acclaimed expert,\u201d and likely to be confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrom an industry standpoint, this position oversees the security cooperation programs for all those regions which are fundamental to our security, our alliances and partnerships and the technology that industry provides our warfighters,\u201d Punaro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2020\/06\/18\/kathryn-wheelbarger-top-foreign-policy-defense-official-resigns\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wheelabrger.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Kathryn Wheelbarger, Pentagon\u2019s top foreign policy official, resigns<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Wheelbarger had her nomination for a top intelligence job pulled last week.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jim Townsend, a former defense official on Europe and NATO policy now with the Center for a New American Security said Wallander\u2019s mix of Pentagon and White House experience shows she\u2019d be effective in the job. (Wallander accompanied then-Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow for meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Syria\u2019s civil war.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShe\u2019s worked with allies, and she\u2019s gone toe-to-toe with adversaries. There\u2019s no one better for the job,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though the U.S.-Russia Foundation was conceived in 2006 to strengthen U.S.-Russia ties and promote investments in Russia\u2019s private sector, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared it \u201cundesirable\u201d in 2015 amid a wave of anti-western sentiment. That year, its Moscow headquarters relocated to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wallander\u2019s nomination came the same day five of Biden\u2019s civilian nominees were approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 Caroline Krass for Pentagon general counsel<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 Gina Ortiz-Jones for Air Force undersecretary<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 Ely Ratner for assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 Shawn Skelly for assistant secretary of defense for readiness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 Meredith Berger for the Navy\u2019s assistant secretary for energy, installations and environment<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Punaro\u2019s accounting, Biden\u2019s pace for civilian Pentagon nominations in his fifth month is in step with the last several administrations, even as the time it takes to select, vet and nominate has steadily risen since the Kennedy administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s been action so far on 23 out of 61 Pentagon slots for presidential appointments requiring Senate confirmation. Six have been confirmed, ten are pending on the Senate executive calendar, six are awaiting SASC hearings and the White House announced Biden\u2019s intent to nominate Wallander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As with the five nominees, who SASC hosted last week in a single hearing, the panel, \u201chas gone out of their way to accommodate the Pentagon doing panels of four and five nominees, which is not the historic norm,\u201d Punaro said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Joe Biden is set to nominate the chief executive of the U.S.-Russia Foundation and a former National Security Council official on Russia to be the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":114302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[8,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446],"class_list":["post-53919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SLP7WEJ4VBHP7EVTENCEX7IFDA","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2021\/06\/23\/biden-picks-russia-pro-for-key-pentagon-post\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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