Reports: Administration Taps Carter to Replace Hagel

The Obama Administration has tapped former Deputy Defense Secretary Dr. Ash Carter to replace Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, according to Dec. 2 reports. Carter has previous Administration experience, working two years as Deputy Defense Secretary under Hagel and predecessor Leon Panetta, and two years as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. From 1993 to 1996, Carter was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, a post where he oversaw strategic affairs and nuclear weapons policy, and directed the first Nuclear Posture Review in 1994. He also helped devise the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, chaired the Preventive Defense Project at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and served on the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. Carter is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and earned a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar.