The new undersecretary of defense could be tested soon over his policy preferences in U.S. military strategy.
The Senate voted to confirm Elbridge Colby as the next undersecretary of defense for policy on April 8, giving final validation for President Donald Trump’s pick for a top Pentagon strategy post.
Colby’s confirmation passed by a vote of 54–45. Now confirmed, he is set to serve as the top defense policy adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and help shape U.S. national security policies.
“I look forward to working together to put our warfighters first and strengthen our national defense,” Hegseth said in a post on social media platform X following the vote.
Colby has served in a variety of foreign policy and national security advisory roles over the past two decades, including during the first Trump administration, and in policy think tanks. Throughout his career, Colby has advocated increased prioritization within U.S. foreign policy and military planning.
Writing in a July 2023 op-ed for The Times of Israel, Colby argued that for the United States to properly prepare for a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific region, it will have to shift focus away from the Middle East and reset its relationship with Israel.
In a 2010 essay for Foreign Policy, Colby discussed ways the United States could continue to deter Iran, even if Tehran were to obtain nuclear weapons.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) had raised concerns during the confirmation process that Colby’s views on the Middle East and Iranian nuclear containment are not aligned with Trump’s.
At Colby’s March 4 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Cotton pressed him as to whether he would present Trump with options for U.S. military operations against Iran.
“Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move,” McConnell said in a statement following the vote. “It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit.”
Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) voted in favor of Colby’s confirmation.
By Ryan Morgan
