Currently Featured
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 unprecedented post-1998 rise in defense spending and the return to Cold War budget levels. The causes include overly ambitious US military strategy and goals; weakness of reform and transformation efforts; failure to make hard choices in acquisition; and conduct of wars ill-suited to the US military. Also examined: the surge in military construction and the expanded role of private contractors.
The President's Dilemma: Debt, Deficits, and Defense Spending by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Memo #45, 18 January 2010. The nation faces Reagan-level deficit spending and greatly increased debt. Can the president's program of high defense spending and increased non-defense spending survive? What about other urgent national priorities?
Military Intervention and Common Sense: Focus on Land Forces (Paperback and Kindle editions) (Mobipocket edition) by Lutz Unterseher with contributions by C. Knight and C. Conetta, June 2009. Detailed assessment of ground force options for today's most challenging type of military intervention: those required for the stabilization of countries seriously affected by civil war or insurgency.
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), December 2008. The US has been using its armed forces beyond the limit of their utility. The result is not just diminishing returns, but negative ones.
Re-Envisioning Defense: An Agenda for US Policy Debate & Transition (full text .pdf with graphics) (full text .html, no graphics) (exec. summary .html), updated December 2008. Summarizes problem areas in recent US defense policy as well as several broad topics of debate that touch on them all.
Charts: Terrorism Fatalities Before & After 9/11 
Fatalities Due to Terrorism 2004-07 Global Views of the US World Opinion and US Military Power Military Personnel
Overseas Percent Active Component Military Overseas US Defense Spending
World Military Spending Federal Debt as % of GDP 1940-2007
Quickly, Carefully, and Generously: The Necessary Steps for a Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf) (executive summary .pdf), by the Task Force for a Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq, June 2008. Twenty-five initiatives to reduce violence and regional instability as the US leaves Iraq. Preface by US Rep. James P. McGovern (MA). A Commonwealth Institute publication.
Symposium: The Role of Force & the Armed Forces in US Foreign Policy -- What have we learned?, Security Policy Working Group, 10 April 2008.
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. The reasons reside not in the differences between the Bush and Clinton administration, but in their points of similarity.
A Prisoner to Primacy (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf), PDA Briefing Memo #43, 05 February 2008. The United States is entering a period of policy transition, but there is a dearth of new thinking regarding security policy. The debate remains paralyzed by 9/11 and mesmerized by military primacy. Progress depends on rethinking the role of force.
Toward a Sustainable US Defense Posture: An Option to save $60+ Billion Over the Next Five Years (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf), PDA Briefing Memo #42, 02 August 2007. Fiscal realities and public opinion may compel a cut in US defense spending. The memo outlines an option to save $60+ billion over the next five years by reducing fighter aircraft and aircraft carrier fleets.
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.
War & Consequences: Global Terrorism has Increased Since 9/11 Attacks (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf), PDA Briefing Memo #38, 25 September 2006. Data on the relationship between the Iraq war and terrorism.
Pyrrhus on the Potomac: How America's post-9/11 wars have undermined US national security (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Report #18, 05 September 2006. Al Qaeda has been disrupted, but US wars have stimulated new threats, while weakening the nation's defenses.
