Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
9/12/2014
Andrew Weber, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs, said late this week that he will step down from his position this fall after more than five years in the role. Weber’s departure was first reported by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Weber, who also serves as the staff director of the Nuclear Weapons Council, has served in the position since 2009, overseeing the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.
In a Sept. 11 message to employees, Weber said he was confident he could leave the position “knowing that you will continue to innovate, excel and keep our organizations wonderful places to work.” He went on to say, “I am so proud of your successes over the past 5+ years: eliminating chemical weapons programs in Syria and Libya, modernizing the nuclear deterrent, revolutionizing our systems for biosurveillance and countering-WMD situational awareness, creating enduring exercises and S&T programs with partners around the world, changing how the entire Department thinks about global health security—the list goes on and on.”
Weber’s Successor Unclear
It’s unclear who will succeed Weber, or where he’ll go after he leaves the Pentagon. Arthur Hopkins is currently serving as the acting Principal Deputy to Weber. During his tenure, Weber also played a role in helping to implement President Obama’s nuclear and arms control policies, including maintaining and modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile, as well as the elimination of chemical weapons in Libya and Syria.
Weber also represents the final member of President Obama’s initial Pentagon nuclear team that drafted the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review and helped implement the President’s Prague agenda. In recent years, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (and later, Flournoy’s successor) Jim Miller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy Brad Roberts, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters Steve Henry, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs John Harvey, have all left the Administration.
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