Pompeo Announces Departure of Andrea Thompson as Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security

September 23, 2019 By in Functional Bureaus, Huh? News, Mike Pompeo, Political Appointees, Resignations, Security, Senators, SFRC, State Department, Trends Tags: , , ,
On December 13, the WH announced Trump’s intent to nominate retired U.S. Colonel Andrea L. Thompson to be the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (State/T).  She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by voice vote on April 26, 2018.  She succeeded Rose Eileen Gottemoeller who served from 2014–2016, and was subsequently appointed to NATO (see Rose @Gottemoeller Moves to @NATO as First Female Deputy Secretary General).  More about Thompson here.
On September 20, about 17 months into her tenure, Secretary Pompeo announced Thompson’s departure without detailing the reason she is leaving one of the top senior jobs in Foggy Bottom. So the T bureau is once more vacant, as well as the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance which does not have a Senate-confirmed assistant secretary as of this writing (office is currently headed by Thomas DiNanno as Senior Bureau Official and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Defense Policy, Emerging Threats, and Outreach). The Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, and the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs both have Senate-confirmed assistant secretaries, presumably one of them would be up as Acting “T” until a a new nominee is identified and confirmed. How long that would take, that’s a guessing game we all can play while chaos marches on.

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