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Defense
Sense: Options for National Defense
Savings in Fiscal Year 2013. (full
text version .pdf) (summary
of recommendations .pdf) 15 May
2012. The report outlines 18 recommendations
for safely reducing the Fiscal Year 2013
defense budget by $17 billion to $20 billion.
Two charts, one table.
Pentagon Base
Budget to Get Bigger Spending Share in
2013. (printable
.pdf version) by Carl Conetta, PDA
Briefing Memo #54, 23 March 2012. A comparison
of discretionary spending in 2008 and 2013
shows an increased tilt toward the "Security
Basket" and National Defense. One table.
How to Pay for
Wars. by Benjamin H.
Friedman and Charles Knight, The National
Interest, 06 March 2012. A war tax or an
effective cap on war spending can serve as a
disincentive to reckless war making.
PDA Commentary: How
Much Austerity in New Pentagon Budget?
(printable
.pdf version) Carl Conetta and
Charles Knight, 13 February 2012. Measured
against recent spending levels, the new
ten-year plan for Defense base budget spending
shows only modest savings. One table.
Graphic: Does President
Obama Run Hot or Cold on Defense?
Taking the Temperature of the Pentagon Base
Budget Past, Present, and Future. 13 February
2012.
Chart: Pentagon Base
“Non-war” Budget 1976-2017 – Secretary
Panetta vs. Sequestration.
13 February 2012.
Data Summary: Four
Decades of US Defense Spending.(printable
.pdf
version) 25 January 2012. One page
review and assessment of the change in US
defense spending over 40 years. One graph.
Keep Pentagon
Cuts in Perspective: What the
administration proposes is hardly dramatic.
(printable
.pdf version) PDA Briefing Memo
#53, 5 January 2012. The roll back in Pentagon
budget plans will modestly reduce spending
from its recent peak, while retaining most of
the post-1998 surge in the defense budget.
Going for
Broke: The Budgetary Consequences of
Current US Defense Strategy. (printable
.pdf version) by Carl Conetta, PDA
Briefing Memo #52, 25 October 2011. The
Pentagon's adoption of more ambitious goals,
strategy, and missions after the Cold War has
led to today's unsustainable defense budgets.
Two tables.
Strategic
Adjustment to Sustain the Force: A survey
of current proposals. (printable
.pdf version) by Charles Knight,
PDA Briefing Memo #51, 25 October 2011. A
survey of five proposals by independent
experts for adjusting US global strategy to
new fiscal realities in ways that enhance
security while avoiding 'hollowing' of the
forces.
Pentagon Cuts
in Context: No reason for "doomsday"
hysteria. (printable
.pdf version) by Carl Conetta. PDA
Briefing Memo #50, 11 October 2011. Analyzes
the potential impact of the Budget Control Act
on the defense budget under different
scenarios and compares likely future budget
levels to past ones. Two tables.
Experts
Letter on Defense Spending to the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and
Reform. (.html version) (printable .pdf version)18
November 2010. Joint declaration by 48
top scholars and practitioners of national
security policy: "We can achieve safe savings
in defense if we are willing to rethink how we
produce military power and how, why, and where
we put it to use."
Debt,
Deficits, and Defense: A Way Forward.
Report of the Sustainable Defense Task Force.
11 June 2010. The report presents options for
reducing DoD’s budget -- in sum saving nearly
$1 trillion over the next decade. (Executive
Summary).
An
Undisciplined Defense: Understanding
the $2 Trillion Surge in US Defense
Spending (full text .pdf file with
charts and appendices) (executive summary)
by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Report #20, 18
January 2010. Analyzes the steep rise in
defense spending since 1998. 21 charts and
tables.
Military
Intervention and Common Sense: Focus on
Land Forces (Paperback and Kindle
editions) (Mobipocket edition) by
Lutz Unterseher with C. Knight and C. Conetta,
June 2009. Ground force options for stability
operations.
Forceful
Engagement: Rethinking the Role of
Military Power in US Global Policy
(full text .pdf with
graphics) (full text .html, no
graphics) (exec. summary .html),
Dec 2008. The US has been using its armed
forces beyond the limit of their utility.
Cul de Sac:
9/11 and the Paradox of American Power
(full
text .html) (printable full text .pdf),
PDA Research Monograph #13, 05 February
2008. Post-Cold War US security policy
evinces a disturbing paradox: it has been
delivering less and less security at ever
increasing cost.
A Prisoner to
Primacy (full
text .html) (printable full text .pdf),
PDA Briefing Memo #43, 05 February 2008.
The US security policy debate remains
paralyzed by 9/11 and mesmerized by military
primacy. Progress depends on rethinking the
role of force.
Dissuading China and Fighting
the 'Long War', World
Policy Journal. The 2006 US Defense
Review advanced two new strategic vectors for
the US armed forces - one targets a putative
"global Islamic insurgency"; the other puts
America on a collison course with China.
