Secretary of Defense

(noun)

The Secretary of Defense (SecDef) is the leader and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense, an Executive Department of the US government. The Secretary of Defense exercises command and control, subject only to the orders of the President, over all Department of Defense forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps) for both operational and administrative purposes.

Related Terms

Examples of Secretary of Defense in the following topics:

  • The Cabinet

    • The secretary of state and secretary of defense play key roles in assisting the president with foreign policy.
    • This includes the secretary of state and the secretary of defense.
    • The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense, which is an Executive Department of the Government of the United States of America .
    • Secretary of Defense is a statutory office.
    • Compare and contrast the roles of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense in U.S. foreign policy

  • Commander-in-Chief

    • According to Article II, Section 2, Clause I of the Constitution, the President of the United States is commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
    • Since 1949, the Secretary of Defense, a civil officer appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is by statute second in command over those armed forces which are part of the Department of Defense: the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marine Corps.
    • The operational branch of the chain of command runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense, and from the Secretary of Defense down to the combatant commanders of the unified combatant commands.
    • The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. chief of defense equivalent, may assist the President and Secretary of Defense in the exercise of their command functions, but the Chairman himself does not independently exercise command over any combatant forces.
    • McClernand after the Battle of Antietam, 1862.

  • National Security

    • The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense.
    • This was later changed in the amendment to the act in 1949, creating what was to be the Department of Defense.
    • The Act merged the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment, headed by the Secretary of Defense.
    • Initially, each of the three service secretaries maintained quasi-cabinet status, but the act was amended on August 10, 1949, to assure their subordination to the Secretary of Defense.
    • At the same time, the NME was renamed as the Department of Defense.

  • Cabinet Departments

    • At the top of each department is the secretary (in the Department of Justice, the highest office is called the "attorney general," but the role is parallel to that of the secretary of state, defense, etc.).
    • The deputy secretary advises and assists the secretary, and fills the Office of Secretary if it becomes vacant.
    • Likewise, military staff includes soldiers on active duty who are not administrative employees but are nonetheless under the purview of the Department of Defense.
    • The Department of War has since been subsumed by the Department of Defense, and many other executive departments have been formed.
    • Defense: The Secretary of Defense supervises national defense and the armed forces.

  • A Typical Department Structure

    • Executive departments are organized with secretaries at the top of the hierarchy, followed by deputy secretaries and under secretaries.
    • The number of employees at each department varies widely, from about 4,500 in the Department of Education to about 3,000,000 at the Department of Defense.
    • At the top of each department is the secretary (in the Department of Justice, the highest office is called the "attorney general," but the role is the same as that of the secretary of state, defense, etc.).
    • The deputy secretary advises and assists the secretary, and fills the Office of Secretary if it becomes vacant.
    • Likewise, military staff includes soldiers on active duty who are not administrative employees but are nonetheless under the purview of the Department of Defense.

  • The Bureaucracy

    • The Department is led by the Secretary of State, who is nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and is a member of the Cabinet.
    • The Department of Defense (also known as the Defense Department, USDOD, DOD, DoD or the Pentagon) is the executive department of the U.S. government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with national security and the U.S. armed forces.
    • The Department – headed by the Secretary of Defense – has three subordinate military departments: the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force.
    • The Military Departments are each headed by their own Secretary, appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate.
    • Compare and contrast the roles of the State Department, the Defense Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency in shaping U.S. foreign policy.

  • The Cabinet

    • Hillary Rodham Clinton assumed the office of Secretary of State on January 21, 2009.
    • The existence of the Cabinet dates back to the first President of the United States, George Washington, who appointed a Cabinet of four men: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph to advise him and to assist him in carrying out his duties.
    • Jack Lew is Secretary of the Treasury.
    • Ashton Carter is Secretary of Defense.
    • Holder, Jr., Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

  • Defending the Nation

    • One of the most important functions of the U.S. government is to provide common defense and security for its citizens.
    • The United States has the largest defense budget in the world.
    • The President helps form military policy with the United States Department of Defense.
    • The United States has the largest defense budget in the world .
    • Its regular attendees (both statutory and non-statutory) are the Vice President (statutory), the Secretary of State (statutory), the Secretary of Treasury (non-statutory), the Secretary of Defense (statutory), and the National Security Advisor (non-statutory).

  • United States in the World

    • The current Secretary of State is John Kerry.
    • The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
    • The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.
    • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with British Foreign Secretary William Hague
    • Secretary Clinton met with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the Treaty Room at the Department of State, May 14, 2010

  • The Executive Departments

    • The State Department (formally known as the Department of State) is the highest ranking executive department and is headed by the Secretary of State.
    • The Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing international diplomacy.
    • The current Secretary of State, appointed by President Barack Obama, is Hillary Clinton.
    • Executive departments are internally led by secretaries, who are also members of the president's Cabinet.
    • The Department of War has since been subsumed by the Department of Defense, and many other executive departments have been formed.