Robert Gates | featured news

Defense Secretary Gates is moving toward ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. A Pentagon study on how to implement a plan to allow gays to serve openly in the military ...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is tapping two seasoned Pentagon officials to lead the military's first in-depth study on allowing openly gay service members and promising to try to spare more troops from being dismissed in the meantime.

Robert Gates The Secretary of Defense will continue in that position in the Obama administration for at least another year, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday. "Secretary Gates met with the president just before Christmas and gave him a commitment to stay on the job for at least another year," Geoff Morrell, deputy assistant secretary of defense and Pentagon press secretary, told CNN. Gates served as Secretary of Defense in the last two years of the Bush administration and stayed on in the post when President Obama took office.

Iran risks increased international sanctions for failing to engage in talks on its nuclear ambitions.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited as Baghdad was reeling from bombings and U.S. forces are beginning to prepare for withdrawals this spring.

Perhaps only a “handful” of U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan in 2011, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said.

In a surprising evolution, the secretaries of state and defense have formed an informal partnership in favor of a moderate buildup in American troops.

As Obama's team works on its plans, McChrystal and other advisors are asked to keep the process more private. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that President Obama's advisors should keep their guidance private, in effect admonishing the top commander in Afghanistan for publicly advocating an approach requiring more troops even as the White House reassesses its strategy.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pushing back against liberal calls for withdrawal timelines from Afghanistan, saying it's a ...

Defense Secretary Gates began laying the groundwork for building up U.S. and allied military defenses should a diplomatic response to North Korea fail.