page_title: Ash Carter
section_title: Secretary of Defense
hierarchical_section_title: Ash Carter / Secretary of Defense
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, second from right, with, from left, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 24, 2015.
context_page_description: Ashton Baldwin Carter is an American public policy professor who served as the 25th secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He is currently Director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
  Carter began his career as a physicist. After a brief experience as an analyst for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, he switched careers to public policy. He joined the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1984 and became chair of the International & Global Affairs faculty. Carter served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy during President Clinton's first term, from 1993 to 1996, responsible for policy regarding the former Soviet states, strategic affairs, and nuclear weapons. During President Obama's first term, he served first as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and then Deputy Secretary of Defense until December 2013. In February 2015, he replaced Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense and served until the end of the Obama administration.
context_section_description: Carter was nominated by President Obama to be the 25th United States Secretary of Defense on December 5, 2014.
  In his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he said he was "very much inclined" to increase U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Speaking on the Middle East, he said the U.S. must militarily ensure a "lasting defeat" of Islamic State (ISIL) forces in Iraq and Syria. He said he is not in favor of increasing the rate of prisoner releases from Guantanamo Bay. He also opined that the threats posed by Iran were as serious as those posed by the ISIL forces.
  He was approved unanimously on February 1, 2015, by the Senate Armed Services Committee.  He was confirmed by the Senate on February 12 by a vote of 93–5 and sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on February 17.
  In May 2015, Carter warned China to halt its rapid island-building in the South China Sea.
  In October 2015, Carter condemned Russian air strikes against ISIL and other rebel groups in Syria. On October 8, 2015, Carter, speaking at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, said he believed Russia would soon start paying the price for its military intervention in Syria in the form of reprisal attacks and casualties.
  A controversy arose in December 2015 when it was revealed that Carter had used a personal email account when conducting official business as Secretary of Defense.
  In January 2016, at Carter's direction, the Department of Defense opened all military roles to women, overriding a request by the Marine Corps to continue to exempt women from certain positions. In June 2016, Carter announced that transgender individuals would be allowed to join and openly serve in the military.
caption: U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, second from right, with, from left, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a wreath-laying ceremony.
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