Washington (CNN) The Senate easily confirmed Ashton Carter, a former number two at the Pentagon, to be the new Secretary of Defense.

The vote was 93 to 5.

He will take the helm at DOD as the United States is immersed in several complex national security challenges across the globe, including the widening military campaign against ISIS.

A respected technocrat who has served in a number of high level positions at the Pentagon, Carter will replace Secretary Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator who resigned after less than two years on the job when he was unable to fully mesh with President Barack Obama's national security team at the White House.

Carter, who has degrees in theoretical physics and medieval history from Yale and Oxford, was approved unanimously by the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday. The committee held a lengthy confirmation hearing for him last week that became a proxy for Republican senators to attack the President's handling of various international hotspots -- like Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine -- that Carter will now help manage.

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