• Ar
  • Es
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Feature
  • Videos
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Feature
Videos
Infographs
In Pictures
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. US & Canada
  4. Council on Foreign Relations vote Lockheed Martin CEO as board member
US & Canada

Council on Foreign Relations vote Lockheed Martin CEO as board member

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Responsible Statecraft
  • 18 May 15:37
  • 1 Shares

Taiclet's nomination for CFR's board committee indicates that the leadership is knowingly including an individual who is highly dependent on the US defense budget, since 70% of his company's revenue came from US government contracts on 2018.

  • US Council of Foreign Relations voting Lockheed Martin as board member
    A headshot of Jaimes Taiclet Jr., CEO of weapons giant Lockheed Martin Corp. (Lockheed Martin)

According to Responsible Statecraft, a slate of ten board candidates is currently being voted on in the Council on Foreign Relations by the “Nominating and Governance Committee”, whose slate controversially includes the CEO of the world’s largest arms dealer, Lockheed Martin - James Taiclet -  per a document handed to CFR members.

The board members of the New York-based think tank focusing on US foreign policy and international relations are not new to welcoming the arms industry, as CFR’s chairman David Rubenstein is a co-founder and co-chairman of the private equity firm and defense-industry-centered Carlyle Group. 

The CFR board also includes Raytheon board member Meghan O’Sullivan, and director at Virginia-based weapons systems company Leonardo Systems, Frances Townsend. 

Taiclet's nomination for CFR's board committee indicates that CFR’s leadership is knowingly including an individual who is highly dependent on the US defense budget since 70% of his company's revenue came from the US government in 2018.

CFR members are not allowed to vote against or with one individual on the slate and ballots must be cast by June 12.

Read more: US says to double defense budget if Ukraine war spreads beyond borders

'A titan of the weapons industry'

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy in the Arab World Now and a current CFR member, expressed, “It’s deeply disturbing to me that CFR has nominated a defense industry executive to oversee the work of the organization,” further adding, “His election would create an apparent conflict of interest as CFR produces policy recommendations regarding ongoing military sales and armed conflict.”

“It would also be quite distasteful to have a titan of the weapons industry in a leadership role for what many members hope will be an organization committed to fostering diplomacy, not war,” she said. 

Taiclet was asked last year by Responsible Statecraft about receiving $75 billion in Pentagon contracts in the fiscal year 2020, one and a half times the State Department and Agency for International Development budgets, and whether it was reflective of national priorities.

Read more: Lockheed Martin awarded $7.8bln F-35 order for US, allies

At the time, he defended the large spending budget by saying that it was “up to the US government,” and claimed that “it’s only up to us to step to what we’ve been asked to do and we’re just trying to do that in a more effective way, and that’s our role.”

But according to OpenSecrets, his argument does not clarify why Lockheed spent more than $13 million lobbying the federal government last year and focused on the defense budget.

Although the Lockheed CEO fits the CFR mission, his outsized interest in weapons and his company's sales being 90% in the arms sector alongside his status as the world’s largest arms-producing and military services company, Taiclet's inclusion will raise suspicions about whether he would use his influence at CFR - thus affecting interests in diplomacy, non-armament forms of international trade, reducing the US defense budget, or finding areas of cooperation between the US and other great powers.

  • CFR
  • Lockheed Martin Corp
  • US
  • Council of Foreign Relations
  • lockheed martin

Trending Now

All
Pentagon

Lockheed Martin awarded $7.8bln F-35 order for US, allies

Most Read

The Middle East Stabilises, Against the Backdrop of a Great Unravelling

The Middle East Stabilises, Against the Backdrop of a Great Unravelling

  • Analysis
  • 28 May
In this image released by the Italian firefighters, a helicopter searches for missing passengers after a tourist boat capsized in a storm on Italy's Lago Maggiore in the northern Lombardy region, May 28, 2023 (AP)

Top Israeli intelligence official dead in Italy: Israeli media

  • Europe
  • 29 May
The domestically produced C919 passenger jet flies at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Peoeple's Republic of China, 8 November 2022. (Reuters)

China is set to launch first commercial flight on its C919 plane

  • Asia
  • 26 May
Saudi Arabia's Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plant which is operated by ARAMCO. (AP)

Tensions between Riyadh and Moscow on the rise due to oil prices: WSJ

  • MENA
  • 28 May

Read this

All
US sailors aboard an amphibious transport dock ship keep watch on Iranian fast inland attack craft in Strait of Hormuz on 12 August (AFP photo/US Navy)
MENA

UAE withdraws from US-led Middle East Maritime Security Alliance

  • Today
Piles of waste turn the Himalayas into 'gigantic rubbish bins'
Asia

Climbers' piles of waste turn the Himalayas into 'giant dustbin'

  • Today
This photo released Nov. 5, 2019, by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines in Natanz uranium enrichment facility near Natanz, Iran. (AP)
US & Canada

US seeks Omani mediation for Iran nuclear program deal: Axios

  • Today
President Donald Trump holds a signed Constitution Day proclamation after he spoke to the White House conference on American History at the National Archives museum, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, in Washington. (AP)
US & Canada

Trump vows to deny birthright citizenship to children of immigrants

  • Today
Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS