U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has announced a slew of picks to fill key Pentagon positions, but his choice to be the Defense Department’s policy chief may be the most consequential for Japan and the region.
Trump on Sunday announced that he had picked former defense official Elbridge Colby to be the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy — a key post that provides national security advice and support on strategy, planning and management of international alliances and partnerships to the defense secretary and department leadership.
Colby has said that the U.S. military must focus its attention on China and the Indo-Pacific region, while repeatedly pushing for Japan to quickly and dramatically ramp up defense spending to around 3% of gross domestic product.