It is time for a progressive approach to national security.

This is more than simply cleaning up Trump’s mess.

It looks like President-elect Joe Biden will appoint Michele Flournoy as his Secretary of Defence. This would be the first time a female has been appointed to the role, so could indicate a broader commitment to diversity and inclusion in his first Cabinet. But hopefully it is more than symbolism. Biden could lead a seismic shift in the way the United States handles its security.

As is often the case when seeking to move on from Trump, it has to be understood that he is a symptom of a changing world “as much as an accelerant”. The opportunity a new administration has, therefore, is party to re-write the wrongs of its predecessor, but party to re-calibrate the priorities of the greatest power on earth to better protect those who need it, and to better allocate its resources to reflect a more robust meaning of security.

The Trump presidency, despite some high profile killings such as Qassim al-Rimi and Qasem Soleimani, spoke more to an infantile interest in bombastic statements than a intersectional, nuanced approach that the complexities of global security.

The administration’s narrow-mindness has proved to be lethal for US citizens. The county with a military budget eight times that of…