Richard Betts in CNN
Austin focuses inward in first days as Pentagon chief
Richard Betts, the Leo A. Shifrin Professor of War and Peace Studies and Professor of International and Public Affairs, was quoted in CNN.
Lloyd Austin pressed his extended forefinger into the table, a sign the new secretary of defense was serious. He had called a meeting Wednesday with his most senior military leaders to address what he believes are among the most pressing issues facing the country and the armed services: racism and domestic extremism. And as he told the leaders of the military branches in his deliberate, measured pace to "get after it," he repeatedly thumped the table with his finger, according to a senior defense official familiar with the call...
... Austin's current prioritization of sexual assault and extremism in the military is also a consequence of the issues being focused on across the country, said Richard Betts, a professor of war and peace studies at Columbia University.
"All of the attention to previously tolerated or semi-ignored or swept-under-the-rug sorts of issues has just bubbled up through society, and the military as a major institution has been caught up in it like others," Betts said...