Pete Hegseth once scared America’s allies. Now he reassures them
The defence secretary is a MAGA radical at home but a globalist abroad
TO SOME he embodies the “revenge of the field-grade officers”, the angry mid-ranking veterans who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with loathing for the politicians and generals who sent them to fight losing wars. Pete Hegseth, a former army major and now America’s defence secretary, celebrates soldiers “with dust on their boots”. But though he may be a MAGA radical at home, there are signs that he is turning into a surprisingly conventional American globalist abroad.
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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The neo-neo-con”
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