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Isn't the whole point of a military to protect economic interests?
Yes, but I kind of see the point here. You would military alliances (like NATO) to be an important part of a SecDef's portfolio. So a nominee that was well-versed in national security issues ought to know the members of a most security or military alliances off the top of their head. But the same isn't really true of economic or trade alliances, which serve purposes and perform functions that intersect less with the portfolio of the Department of Defense, rather than (say) the Department of State. So we might not necessarily expect a foreign policy wonk to be able to name the members of, for example Mercosur with the same facility as knowing which countries are in NATO or not.
