Publications

The Pentagon and Deficit Reduction: FY-2012 Budget Retains Exceptional Level of Defense Spending

PDA Briefing Memo #47, 01 March 2011.   ➪ read or print PDF version   ➪ read HTML version
Reviews US military spending plans for 2012-2016 in the context of deficit-reduction efforts and the past 12 years of defense budget growth. The base defense budget is set to grow faster than inflation and will claim a greater proportion of discretionary spending. With 10 tables and charts.

Pentagon Resists Deficit Reduction: Rollback in Planned Budget Falls Far Short of Deficit Reduction Goals – Puts Fiscal Reform at Risk

➪ read or print PDF PDA Briefing Memo #46, 30 January 2011. Examines Defense Secretary Gates’ offer to cut $78 billion from defense plans over five years and compares it to fiscal reform proposals that seek much greater savings. Does the Pentagon need a yearly baseline budget above $500 billion? Or do we spend so much because our defense strategy is impractical? Two tables summarize Gates’ plan and compare different spending scenarios.

Debt, Deficits, and Defense: A Way Forward

Report of the Sustainable Defense Task Force, 11 June 2010.   ➪ PDF ➪ summary PDF

Debt, Deficits, and Defense    

      

The report presents options identified by the task force for reducing DoD’s budget — in sum saving nearly $1 trillion over the decade. The task force was convened by Rep. Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. PDA played a major role in researching, composing, and producing this report.

    

The Dynamics of Defense Budget Growth, 1998-2011

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by Carl Conetta, May 2010. ➪ PDF

Prepared for “Economics and Security: Resourcing National Priorities,” a workshop sponsored by the William B. Ruger Chair of National Security Economics, Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, May 2010. This article also is a chapter in Richmond M. Lloyd, ed, Economics and Security: Resourcing National Priorities (Newport RI: Naval War College, 2010).

Helicopters in America’s post-9/11 wars

Carl Conetta, Project on Defense Alternatives, Sep 2008   HTML |  PDF

This article is a chapter in Lutz Unterseher, Military Intervention and Common Sense: Focus on Land Forces (Berlin-Greifswald: Ryckschau, 2008.)

Drawing on the experiences of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the article assesses the role played by helicopters, reviewing their strengths and limits. The author suggests that a dilemma shadows the use of these aircraft. On the one hand, they offer a unique combination of mobility, flexibility, and agility in working closely with ground forces, providing reconnaissance, fire, maneuver, and logistical support. However, helicopters prove acutely sensitive to environmental conditions, are relatively fragile, and can be countered by multiple, relatively-inexpensive weapon systems.

These problems can be partially mitigated, but only in ways that substantially increase costs while narrowing the scope of the crafts’ usability. This has undercut notions of using helicopters in deep attack roles and large-scale helicopter assaults.

The article concludes by examining cost-effective roles for helicopters in combat. And it asks, Do tilt-rotor aircraft offer a viable alternative?

 

Quickly, Carefully, and Generously: The Necessary Steps for a Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq

(printable PDF version) (HTML version) (summary) by Task Force for a Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq.  A Commonwealth Institute publication, 01 June 2008. Twenty-five initiatives the US can and should take to reduce violence and regional instability as the US leaves Iraq. Preface by U.S. Representative James P. McGovern (MA – 03).

Symposium: The Role of Force & the Armed Forces in US Foreign Policy — What have we learned?

Security Policy Working Group, 10 April 2008.

  • Andrew Bacevich, “The Origins and Demise of the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War”
  • Carl Conetta, “Out from the House of War: A Litmus for New Leadership in Security Policy” (printable .pdf)
  • David Gold, “How Much Defense Can We Afford? (printable .pdf), as republished in Challenge (Sept/Oct 2008)