Comparing leadership shifts: US military shakeup and India's Chief of Defence Staff evolution

The sudden dismissal of Gen Charles Q Brown Jr as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) – the highest-ranking military officer in the United States – along with several other top military leaders by President Donald Trump has not only sent ripples down the US military hierarchy but its impact and ramifications are being closely followed across the world.

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The development comes at a time when Trump has declared a national emergency on the border with Mexico and deployed troops to counter illegal migration, initiated negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the three years long Russia-Ukraine war in which the West has been heavily supporting Ukraine and rooted to reduce the long-standing American involvement in Europe’s security.

The Middle-East is also on the boil and to the East, China remains belligerent.

Gen Brown’s ouster, US media reports say, is due to his focus on diversity, equality and inclusivity programmes for the military’s rank and file, a line contrary to Trump’s outlook, rather than for operational reasons. In his parting communique, Trump termed Brown as a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader.

As the seniormost military officer, the CJCS is the principal military advisor to the US President, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the secretary of defence.

As chairman, he is the presiding officer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that comprise the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Staff of the Army, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Naval Operations, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Chief of Space Operations and Chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Under US law, the position of the CJCS, like the other aforementioned chiefs of service branches, is administrative and they cannot execute operational command over war fighting elements.

The role of the joint chiefs is to advise the civilian leadership and to train and designate human and material resources from their respective force for the unified combatant commands, also referred to as theatre command, the heads of which report directly to the defence secretary.

Also, the chairman and vice chairman cannot be from the same branch of the armed forces, except for a brief period to enable the orderly transition of officers appointed to serve in those positions.

The CJCS is nominated by the US President. Title 10 of the US Code states, “There is a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from the officers of the regular components of the armed forces. The Chairman serves at the pleasure of the President for a term of four years, beginning on October 1 of an odd-numbered year. The limitation does not apply in time of war.”

The code states that the president may appoint an officer as CJCS only if the officer has served as the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff; chief of one of the service branches or the commander of a unified or specified combatant command.

This means that a nominee should have held the rank of a four-star general or admiral. The code further states that the president may waive these requirements in the case of an officer if he determines such action is necessary in national interest.

Trump has named a retired officer, Lt Gen John Daniel Caine who was commissioned into the US Air Force in 1990 and served as the associate director for military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2021 to 2024, as Brown’s successor.

According to reports in the American media, if confirmed by the Senate, Caine, a three-star officer, would be the first CJCS to have never served in the rank of a four-star general or admiral and the first to have been retired at the time of their appointment.

However, there are some parallels with India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a recently constituted though long-awaited post.

The first CDS was Gen Bipin Rawat, a four-star officer who assumed office on January 1, 2020, a day after his superannuation as Chief of the Army Staff.

A few months after his untimely demise in a helicopter crash in December 2021, the Central Government appointed a three-star officer, Lt Gen Anil Chauhan, who had retired as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command in 2021, as the country’s second CDS in September 2022.

While the appointment of the CDS is cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet and does not require legislative approval like in the US system, the post of the CDS, similar to its US counterpart, is administrative and advisory, without the mandate to exercise operational command over troops.

The CDS, like the CJCS, is a four-star officer, regardless of the previous rank held, and is the first among equals. The Indian law does not specify a term of office for the CDS, but has fixed an upper age limit of 65 years for the incumbent.

When Gen Rawat took over as the CDS, he was three months’ shy of 62, which notionally would have given him a term of about three years. Given the age of the incumbent CDS, Gen Chauhan, who has held office for approximately two years and five months, he has about 15 months’ residual tenure.

Gen Brown’s tenure of 1 year and 145 days would be the shortest for any of the 21 CJCS since the post was created in 1949. Barring three others, the tenures of CJCS have been 3-4 years, with one officer, General Earle Wheeler serving for six years from 1964 – 1970 during the height of America’s war with Vietnam.