\n<\/p>\n
As the head of a major State Department office that oversees some $40 billion annually in global arms transfers, the crises in Ukraine and Israel have Mira Resnick up to her knees in work.<\/p>\n
The days may be long, but Resnick, deputy assistant secretary for the Regional Security Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, knows how important the job is for the country and to help manage the dual conflicts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to handle both because we will have to handle both,\u201d she told The Hill in a recent interview. \u201cAnd the secretary has said before that we have to walk and chew gum at the same time \u2026 so that is what we will do. Our partners rely on us, and we will be there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Resnick oversees the bureau\u2019s Office of Regional Security and Arms Transfers, making her the person on the State Department side behind all the defense equipment and weapons headed to embattled countries, such as Ukraine. She works closely with other officials in the federal government, including the Pentagon, in a key partnership that ensures the transfers get to where they need to go.<\/p>\n
Resnick is also managing peacetime security aid to countries, including Egypt, and is overseeing critical work ensuring nations have military grant assistance and the financing to purchase U.S. equipment.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a big task: Resnick usually travels twice per month, has daily intelligence readings, frequent meetings with leadership and even calls her work partners on the way home and before bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in constant motion here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been interested in foreign policy for as long as I can remember,\u201d says Resnick, who grew up in California. \u201cThe U.S.-Israel relationship was a private focus in my household because of my Jewish background, but also because we were just a politically aware family.\u201d<\/p>\n
She studied political science at Columbia University, where she graduated in 2005, and later earned a master\u2019s degree in security studies from the Pentagon-funded National Defense University.<\/p>\n
She jumped into foreign policy work with Congress not long after leaving the school, working for multiple Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Bill Keating (Mass.) and former Reps. Henry Waxman (Calif.), Ron Klein (Fla.) and