Austin J. Dahmer is Performing the Duties of Deputy Under Secretary of War for Policy. President Trump appointed him as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development on January 20, 2025, and subsequently nominated him to be Assistant Secretary of War for Strategy, Plans, and Forces.

Prior to joining the Department of War (DoW), Dahmer served as the National Security Advisor to Senator Josh Hawley. In this capacity, he was the principal advisor to the Senator on all matters of defense, foreign policy, and intelligence, as well as classified matters related to the Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. His chief focus in advancing the Senator’s priorities was strengthening the military balance against China in the Indo-Pacific. He traveled widely in the United States and across the Indo-Pacific assessing military forces and capabilities, plans, posture, readiness, and related issues, including to Taiwan, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, and across the continental United States. He previously served as Senator Hawley’s Defense Policy Advisor.

Prior to his service in the Senate, he was a research consultant at The Marathon Initiative where his work focused on defense strategy, military force planning, the defense program, and related issues. He also worked in the defense industry as a principal policy analyst and earlier as a senior policy analyst at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), where he conducted studies and analysis on defense policy issues for customers in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), as well as wargaming for customers in the Intelligence Community, the Joint Staff, and OSD.

He began his career as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. After graduating with merit from Annapolis, he completed basic officer training on the honor roll, and subsequently completed infantry officer, scout sniper unit leader, and ground intelligence officer training. He served within 1st Marine Division commanding infantry units at the platoon and company levels, and as a staff intelligence officer at the battalion and regimental levels. He deployed to the Western Pacific with 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, commanding a scout sniper platoon afloat and ashore in the East and South China Seas, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. He was also hand-selected to command an experimental reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition company at 1st Marines.

Dahmer’s work has been published in a variety of publications, including The National Interest and the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings; he has been quoted in Fox News and The Washington Post; and has appeared on television in Taiwan providing commentary on U.S. defense issues. He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Congressional Foreign Policy Study Group, and has lectured at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

He has a Master of Arts in security studies from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, and a Bachelor of Science with merit in political science and economics from the United States Naval Academy.