American Expert on Biden’s Election: – Unlucky in a Democracy – VG

On Friday, Lloyd Austin’s nomination for defense secretary was approved by the United States Senate, with up to 93 votes to 2 in the often divided chamber.

– It is a violation of a principle and in fact a legal decision in the United States that the Pentagon leadership must be civilized. Now they have received an exception permit, so it was approved, but it is a shame in a democracy to use people from the Armed Forces, Svein Melby tells VG. Melby is a Principal Investigator in the Department of Defense Studies.

Austin had to get special permission to be nominated, as it is stipulated in US law that a Secretary of Defense may not have been active in Defense for the past seven years, which Austin has been doing.

Melby points out that Donald Trump’s Prime Minister of Defense Jim Mattis also had to get such a special permission from the Senate in 2017. Now, the US Congress has given that approval twice in four years.

– Yes, and it’s a shame. Military power must be under civilian political control. It is an important principle in a democracy. This is one of the things that has been emphasized a lot when recruiting new members for NATO, that there is political control over the Armed Forces. Military power is something that elected representatives should have control over. It should not be the case that the army governs itself.

At the same time, Melby points out that Lloyd Austin, as a person, seems to be an excellent choice.

– He is certainly a good leader and is very interested in what is probably a main line at Biden, namely that foreign and security policy should place great emphasis on collective attitudes. From a NATO point of view, this is an excellent person.

On Friday, there were also hopes that the Senate would vote on the nomination of Janet Yellen as finance minister and Anthony Blinken as foreign minister. Now it seems that these polls will take place next Monday.

– Tony Blinken has been one of Biden’s closest foreign policy advisers for many years. He is, as I perceive him, an excellent choice because he is an extremely knowledgeable person with a long career in this field. He has good connections with Biden himself and can represent America with great weight in the world.

– He is a diplomatic person with a good appearance, who is undoubtedly useful in the work of rebuilding the reputation of the United States in the world. It’s a shitty job. What I have heard and seen from him is simply impressive. This will be a prominent foreign minister, Melby believes.

The incoming finance minister also has good opportunities.

– This is a highly qualified person. She has been the governor of a central bank and has a husband (George A. Akerlof, editor’s note) who received the Nobel Prize in economics, and yet most people will say that she is the greatest economist of them, says Melby. .

Yellen is highly respected in the United States and, according to Melby, also has “the right basic political attitude” for the Biden administration.

– Presidents often take credit when the economy is doing well, but I think America’s economic rebound, which began with Obama and continued with Trump through the pandemic, was not due in part to their provisions and decisions.