| | | | | |  | | By Bryan Bender | Presented by Northrop Grumman | With Connor O'Brien and Jacqueline Feldscher Editor's Note: Morning Defense is a free version of POLITICO Pro Defense's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Defense will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 26 and Friday, Nov. 27. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Monday, Nov. 30. | | | — A deal on Confederate base renaming gets closer, but will the president still veto the defense bill? — Michèle Flournoy gets an endorsement from military family groups as Joe Biden prepares to start naming his Cabinet. — The Covid surge forces the Pentagon to take more precautions as the troops brace for more virus cases. HAPPY MONDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we wish we had the kind of access that one Hearst Newspapers correspondent (and former Navy lieutenant) John Fitzgerald Kennedy did when he joined Navy Secretary James Forrestal at the Potsdam Conference between the United States, Britain and Russia after they defeated the Axis powers in Europe in the summer of 1945. "I think that the clash with Russia will be greatly postponed," JFK wrote in October from San Francisco, where he covered the founding of the United Nations. "It will come perhaps, as its avoidance depends chiefly on the extent of Russia's self-restraint, and that is a quality of which powerful nations have a limited quantity." We're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at bbender@politico.com, and follow on Twitter @bryandbender, @morningdefense and @politicopro. | | | | A message from Northrop Grumman: We provide powerful, scalable networks and integrated capabilities that ensure warfighters and the systems they depend on can act as one joint force across every domain, service and mission. Learn more | | | | | | CONFEDERATE NAMES: House Democrats are now pushing to adopt a Senate-backed measure to strip the names of Confederate leaders from military bases over a longer timeline as a way to break an impasse over the issue in the National Defense Authorization Act, our colleague Connor O'Brien reports. House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith said Friday that House negotiators support the Senate provision that would force the renaming of 10 Army installations over a three-year period. The House version of the bill would rename the bases within a year. The issue is one of the thorniest because President Donald Trump has threatened to veto the defense bill if it requires renaming the bases, and Senate Armed Services Chair Jim Inhofe has said he is seeking to strip the provision. But Smith chided GOP leaders for giving Trump cover. "I mean, my God, if Mississippi can take down the Confederate flag, off of the [state] flag, then I think the United States Congress can agree that we shouldn't be naming military bases after people who rose up in armed rebellion against the United States," he told reporters. | | | NEW RUSSIA REPORT: The Atlantic Council releases a report on "How the West should deal with Russia" by former ambassadors Daniel Fried and Alexander Vershbow at 11 a.m. SPECIAL OPS COMMANDER: Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, delivers recorded remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at 2:30 pm. BIDEN WATCH: The Center for a New American Security convenes a webinar on law enforcement, homeland security and intelligence in the Biden administration at 1 p.m. And George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs conducts a webinar on U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East with former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, a top adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, at 3 p.m. Also: On Tuesday, the Brookings Institution will hold a discussion on the Biden presidency and the future of America's "forever wars" at 1 p.m. | | | 'A PIVOTAL MOMENT': "Top national security, foreign policy officials and activists this weekend issued a call for democratic nations to revitalize international institutions and pursue new, more flexible ways for governments to band together to confront China's economic and technological warfare and aggressive military buildup," your Morning D correspondent and Ryan Heath report. "If we are going to make it as a world community of democracies, this is an absolutely pivotal year," Sen. Chris Coons, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told the forum. "This is a pivotal moment in world history. In our history." And it may be the last best chance to show that liberal internationalism is better than populist nationalism, the Brookings Institution's Thomas Wright writes in The Atlantic. China's 'Mahanian Doctrine': The primary means for deterring China militarily will be on the high seas, Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite told the forum, citing the influence of maritime power in history chronicled by 19th century American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. Over the past decade, Braithwaite said, "there's been an awakening" in China. "... All the great powers of the world have been maritime nations and they seem to have embraced that Mahanian Doctrine of turning to the seas. Prior to that they had pretty much a land-centric military. Well, they no longer are land-centric. As we speak today they have more ships than any nation in the world." Related: Trump administration to add four more Chinese firms to Pentagon blacklist, via Reuters. And: China's tech authoritarianism is too big to contain, also via Heath. ICYMI: "The Elements of the China Challenge," via the State Department. | | | |   | | | | | | BATTLING THE SURGE: The Defense Department will impose new restrictions this week for the Pentagon as officials race to contain a potential outbreak of the coronavirus among senior civilians and growing cases of the virus in the ranks at home and abroad. The decision to move to a higher health protection status starting Thursday was driven by the recent spike in coronavirus cases in the region, Lisa Hershman told our colleague Lara Seligman on POLITICO Friday. "We've been watching the region because we saw a spike after Halloween," she said. "As we see the rise, we know that people will likely bring it in the building, so it's time to move out now." It also comes as the military is more broadly struggling to contain Covid-19. Last week the military recorded its largest number of positive cases in a single day, or about 1,300. Overall, the Department of Defense — military, civilians, contractors and dependents — has recorded 108,562 total cases, according to public figures updated Friday. Of those, 1,875 have been hospitalized, 66,193 have recovered, and 119 have died. "Though the test positivity rate among the armed forces is now 6.8 percent, lower than the U.S. national average, COVID-19 cases in the military have continued to grow alongside those in the United States," The Hill reported on Saturday. | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION : President-elect Biden has named his chief of staff and several other key White House positions. What's next? Treasury secretary? Secretary of State? These and other crucial staffing decisions made in the coming days send clear-cut signals about President-elect Biden's administration agenda and priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | CABINET PICKS COMING: Biden will announce his first Cabinet picks on Tuesday, his top advisers said over the weekend, POLITICO's Maya Parthasarathy reports. Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain added that the president-elect's transition team would "beat the pace" of both the Obama-Biden and Trump transitions. Biden reportedly has already settled on two major picks: Tony Binken to be secretary of state and Jake Sullivan to be national security adviser, Bloomberg reported Sunday. Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, is a longtime Biden confidante. Sullivan was a top aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and served in senior positions in the White House and State Department under President Barack Obama. 'UNDISPUTED EXPERTISE': Nearly a dozen military family advocacy groups are endorsing Michèle Flournoy to be Biden's choice for defense secretary, recommending a "speedy confirmation process" for the leading Democratic policy wonk and former top Pentagon official if she is nominated as widely expected. "We appreciate her undisputed expertise on a wide variety of subjects at the Defense Department, and we appreciate her deep commitment to America's troops and their families. We particularly appreciate that she is a member of a military family herself," they told Morning D in a statement, citing her previous Pentagon experience and founding of the Center for a New American Security (she's also a partner with Blinken at consulting firm WestExec Advisors). The statement was issued by the American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces; America's Warrior Partnership; Blue Star Families; the Bush Institute; Disabled American Veterans; the Elizabeth Dole Foundation; Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America; the Institute for Veterans and Military Families; SEAL Kids; The Mission Continues; and the Tragedy Assistance Program, or TAPS. But should she be secretary of defense? Flournoy is highly regarded in both parties, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her detractors. Two leading national security critics, Winslow Wheeler, a former defense appropriations staffer on Capitol Hill, and Pierre Sprey, one of the lead designers of the F-16 fighter jet, have published a detailed critique of her stated vision for the Pentagon and what they see as her cozy ties to the defense industry. "We need to listen to military leaders who have experienced both defeat and victory on the battlefield while remaining free of industry influence and careerism; engineers and scientists who have developed proven, useful technologies; and industry leaders who have delivered successful, affordable products and eschewed self- and corporate-interest," they wrote in an article published by the Project on Government Oversight. "The Flournoy plan proposes no such rigorous evaluation or evaluators of new ideas and new weapons." THE NAME GAME: While it feels like a foregone conclusion that Biden will nominate Flournoy to run the Pentagon, what about his second tier of Pentagon leaders? We've been talking to Biden advisers and others close to the transition team and a number of other leading Democratic defense policy wonks have emerged as likely candidates to fill out some of the other top rungs. One we are hearing for the deputy secretary of defense post is Frank Kendall, who served as undersecretary of defense for acquisition in the Obama administration. Kendall, who is now a consultant affiliated with CSIS, has been a senior adviser to the Biden campaign. A potential candidate for Pentagon budget chief is John Conger , who served as the principal deputy comptroller in the Obama years and is now director of the Center for Climate and Security, where he has been a leading voice for engaging the military much more aggressively in confronting and preparing for climate change. Conger laid out his vision for a "climate-focused" DoD budget" in a recent essay in Defense One. And Kathleen Hicks, who was Flournoy's deputy at the Pentagon and is running the Pentagon "agency review team" for Biden, is high on many lists for undersecretary of defense for policy. What about service secretaries? Rep. Ruben Gallego's name has emerged as a possible contender for Navy secretary. Gallego, a Marine veteran, was a Biden surrogate who helped him become the first Democrat to win Arizona in more than two decades. "I would love to serve under the Biden administration but nothing has been offered," Gallego recently told POLITICO's Alex Thompson. Related: Our national security depends on Joe Biden's transition, via The New York Times. | | | Eric Sayers, a former defense staffer on Capitol Hill and adviser to U.S. Pacific Command at Beacon Strategies, has joined the American Enterprise Institute as a visiting fellow. | | | | A message from Northrop Grumman: In modern missions, communication and coordination is always a challenge – and getting it right can mean the difference between mission success and failure. At Northrop Grumman, we've been taking on this challenge for decades and the result is a scalable, adaptable suite of joint all-domain command and control networks and capabilities. Our products ensure the entire joint force, from troops to weapons systems can act as one across every mission and military service. Because tomorrow's mission success depends on acting as one. Learn more about how we're enabling the joint force. | | | | | | — U.S. formally withdraws from Open Skies Treaty: CNN — Trump's ban on transgender troops hurt the military, former service surgeons general say: The Washington Post — Taiwan to begin building submarine fleet: Reuters — Acting SecDef Miller is rewriting the history of the Vietnam War as the US looks for the exit in Afghanistan: Task & Purpose — Trump Pentagon nominee hunted and killed two elephants in Zimbabwe: Yashar's Newsletter — In first review, E.U. comes clean on military failings: Reuters. — LISTEN: Retired Gen. Jack Keane on Trump's troop drawdowns: American Enterprise Institute — U.S. considers moving troops out of Somalia: The Wall Street Journal — Confronting the U.S. military's white nationalist problem: Proceedings — LISTEN: A study in power: The life and time of James A. Baker III: War on the Rocks — 'Great power competition' as an anachronism: Defense Priorities | | | | DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT 2020: POLITICO will feature a special edition Future Pulse newsletter at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators determined to confront and conquer the most significant health challenges. Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses across our health systems, particularly in the treatment of our most vulnerable communities, driving the focus of the 2020 conference on the converging crises of public health, economic insecurity, and social justice. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage from December 7–9. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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