Updates | The Week of June 12, 2017
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson defended proposed cuts to his department’s budget on the grounds that it should focus on a narrow conception of security (WaPo, NYT).
Continued departures by career diplomats would severely undermine efforts to keep the country safe, explains Michael Fuchs at Just Security.
Secretary of Defense Mattis is attempting to distance himself from President Trump’s politics (NYT).
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson testified before the House Foreign Relations Committee today before a vote on Russia sanctions and after lawmakers recently criticized the president’s plan to cut the State Department’s budget by 30%, arguing that labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group is problematic. (Al Jazeera).
President Trump’s cybersecurity executive order could have stopped the May “WannaCry” cyber-ransomware attack if it had been in place sooner, argue Steven Weber and Chuck Kapelke at Lawfare.