Alex Velez-Green and Austin Dahmer have been skeptical of U.S. engagement abroad, but have also supported a strong U.S.-Israel relationship

Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images via AFP
Elbridge Colby speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington D.C., Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
Elbridge Colby, the Trump administration’s under secretary of defense for policy, announced on Tuesday the nominations of Alex Velez-Green and Austin Dahmer to be, respectively, deputy under secretary of defense for policy and assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, both senior policy roles under Colby in the Department of Defense.
Velez-Green and Dahmer, both former advisors to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), are aligned with the faction of the Republican Party that advocates for more selective U.S. engagement abroad, particularly limiting involvement in Europe, though both have been generally supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Both nominees are already serving in roles in the Defense Department that do not require Senate confirmation — Velez-Green filled Colby’s role during his confirmation process and subsequently served as his senior advisor, and Dahmer has been working in Colby’s office since the start of the Trump administration. The nominations were both submitted to Congress in June.
Defense News previously characterized both Velez-Green and Dahmer as “proteges” of Colby and highlighted that both have pushed for reducing U.S. support to Ukraine in the interest of prioritizing the defense of Taiwan.
Hawley, despite his occasional skepticism of U.S. engagement abroad and opposition for aid to Ukraine, is a vocal supporter of Israel and backed the U.S. strikes on Iran, telling Jewish Insider that he trusted the administration not to allow such an operation to turn into a protracted war.
Velez-Green has said he began his time in Washington focused on Middle East issues, and he worked for Colby at the Center for a New American Security. He’s been critical of the hawkish wing of the GOP.
“We can’t wish away scarcity. The reality is our military doesn’t have many of the things it needs to fight & win against our greatest threat [China],” Velez-Green said on X in 2023. “And our industrial base isn’t in a position to produce those things quickly. Our nation’s defense depends on our ability to prioritize.”
He was more recently a senior policy advisor at the Heritage Foundation, where he co-wrote a report calling for the U.S. to continue strongly supporting Israel and to work to increase cooperation between Israel and the Gulf States against Iran. The report states that supporting Israel’s defense “should be a top priority given America’s unique and long-standing relationship with Israel, but it also directly aids U.S. efforts to counter Iran.”
But it also argues that the U.S.’ interests in the Middle East must be pursued “without detracting from U.S. force posture in the Indo-Pacific.” The report argues that the U.S.’ defense of and support for Israel should “rely primarily if not exclusively on weapons that are not required for Taiwan’s defense.”
Colby, behind the scenes, reportedly argued against the relocation of missile defense resources from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East and other moves he said would detract from a focus on Asia.
In the Heritage report, Velez-Green and his co-author described Iran as a “formidable adversary” but not one positioned to dominate the Middle East. He said the U.S.’ most critical role to play in the region would be to “retain — or, as needed, develop — its ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. U.S. forces must also be able to act decisively in the rare cases where a focused, limited intervention is needed — for example, if Israel’s survival was in doubt. Finally, the United States must always be able to impose severe costs on Iran’s leaders.”
Velez-Green has also described Israel as a “higher priorit[y]” than Ukraine.
Last month, the Heritage Foundation — after Velez-Green’s time at the think tank — offered a cautious response to the U.S. strikes on Iran, warning that they must not turn into a broader conflict.
A former Marine officer, Dahmer has, like Velez-Green, argued that the U.S. lacks the capabilities to fight wars in multiple theaters at the same time, though he has also argued that defending Israel requires fewer tradeoffs than assisting Ukraine in regards to the defense of Taiwan. He expressed support for supplemental aid for Israel last year, while arguing against aid to Ukraine.
“Israel is a close & capable ally which will require very minimal security assistance above the status quo, which we should provide,” Dahmer wrote on X. “When the same request contains ‘humanitarian aid’ to Gaza which will be commandeered by Hamas, this ‘support’ to Israel looks performative.”
He also criticized the Biden administration for “shameful[ly]” encouraging Israel to delay its own military operations in October 2023 while the U.S. worked to protect its own forces, and described U.S. forces deployed in Syria and Iraq as “counterproductive to US interests.”
Colby also announced Tuesday that John Noh had been nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, after serving as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia. Noh is a former staffer for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, federal prosecutor and Army officer who served in Afghanistan.