Below, please find the latest articles to have appeared in print and electronic media about CSIS and its experts. For your reference, there is also a link to archived media coverage of CSIS.
A CSIS Defense Industrial Initiatives Group report, European Military Defense Spending, 2001-2006, was quoted by Bloomberg, "Sarkozy, Chastened by Chad, Seeks Money, Men for EU Defense Arm."
The European Union's biggest peacekeeping mission, the dispatch of 3,700 troops to Chad this year, got off to an inauspicious start: EU governments repeatedly delayed the deployment, halted troop transports when fighting broke out in February, and ultimately had to rely on Russian helicopters to ferry the force to the African desert. The rocky start to the mission to protect 400,000 refugees displaced by civil war in Sudan and fighting in Chad was a blow to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had goaded the EU with the words: "We're not going to let Chad fall."[...] The core of any European force, experts agree, has to be France and Britain, holders of the bloc's most capable armies and, because of their colonial past, the EU countries with the most global commitments. They're the EU's only nuclear powers and combined to spend $114 billion on defense in 2006, about 45 percent of the EU total, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which is based in Washington. Read the article
June 26
David Berteau, director of the CSIS Defense Industrial Initiatives Group, was quoted by the Washington Post, "Government Cites Litany of Errors in Tanker Award."
The Air Force bungled its biggest procurement deal to spend $40 billion to buy new aerial refueling tankers to replace its aging fleet, federal investigators declared last week. But what wasn't publicly known until yesterday was just how badly they did so."This is a damning report," said David Berteau, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It is baffling to me: how did so many smart people at high levels at the Pentagon come to the conclusion that the process was so well done and announce a winner, and then we see a GAO report that gives them a black eye in running a smooth, fair procurement process." Read more
May 22
Guy Ben-Ari, a senior fellow with the CSIS International Security Program, was quoted by the International Herald Tribune, "EU Defense Spending May Clash with Military Goals."
European Union countries may have been deploying more troops abroad in recent years, but a new analysis questions whether the EU's goal of becoming a major defense and security player can be met when military spending among the 27 actually declined from 2001 to 2006. The report, released this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, coincides with a major American reassessment of EU defense and security policy under which Washington would support a more muscular EU, provided that European defense spending was sufficient for a radical improvement in military capabilities on this side of the Atlantic. "Largely for political reasons, the EU member states cannot have any large increases in defense spending," Guy Ben-Ari, one of the authors of the analysis published in Washington, said in an interview. "There are other pressing priorities - for example, social welfare programs - and particularly against the background of aging populations."Read the article
Guy Ben-Ari, fellow, International Security Program, was quoted by Defense News "’Managed Economy' Pressures Smaller U.S. Space Firms to Consolidate."
When the U.S. Defense Department launches a satellite, it basically has one choice - United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. And when it wants to build a satellite, the selection is nearly as limited. [. . .] Unlike in the United States, smaller satellite companies take the lead on large government space programs abroad. Examples include France and the United Kingdom, a leader in the micro and nano satellite domain, and Israel, whose resources and requirements have made smaller satellites more attractive than the larger satellites the United States uses, said Guy Ben-Ari, a fellow of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Read More
March 7
Guy Ben-Ari, a fellow with the CSIS Defense Industrials Initiative, was quoted by TheStreet.com, "Small Companies Can Beat a Bigger Rival."
Take the bad news that hit Boeing(BA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) this week. Widely expected to win a $35 billion contract to build refueling tankers for the Air Force, the company found itself beat out by Northrop Grumman(NOC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and its partner, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., or EADS, (which makes Airbus planes). . . "Even in national defense, it's a global marketplace," says Guy Ben-Ari, a fellow at the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Having this transatlantic alliance was critical for Northrop Grumman, because it gives them access to EADS' state-of-the-art technology." Read More
February 28
Guy Ben-Ari, a senior fellow with the CSIS Defense Industrial Initiatives Group, was quoted by the New York Times, “Bush and Czech Leaders Close to Deal on Radar."
President Bush and the Czech leader said Wednesday that they were close to an agreement on a plan for the United States to install an early warning radar system in the Czech Republic, a key component of a missile defense system that has drawn stiff opposition from Russia. “There are only three words remaining to resolve,” said the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, speaking through an interpreter, after meeting with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office. He described the sticking points as “minor details” and said they had to do with environmental protection issues. [...] “At this point, I think they haven’t gotten the reassurances they are looking to get,” said Guy Ben-Ari, an expert in missile defense at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Assuming everything goes very quickly, and the Czechs give the green light, I think there will still not be a formal announcement made, because the Russians need some more placating.” Read the article
A report by the CSIS Defense Industrial Initiatives Group, Health of the U.S. Industrial Base and the Impact of Export Controls, was cited by Reuters, "U.S. Said Losing Space Markets, Hobbled By Own Policy."
Even as the United States plans a high-profile shoot-down of a wayward satellite, a new report shows Russia, China and others are gaining space market share — aided by a U.S. policy that some say has misfired. Far from blocking the rise of foreign space capabilities, U.S. export controls tightened nearly 10 years ago had the opposite effect in some cases, an expert panel drawn largely from industry said in a study released on Tuesday. "The grand strategic intent of the space export controls is not being achieved," said the report put out by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research group.Read the article
February 8
David Berteau’s joining CSIS to head the Defense Industrials Initiative Group was cited by Defense News, “CSIS Taps Berteau To Lead Industrial Base Group."
The Center for Strategic and International Studies announced Feb. 8 that David Berteau has been named a senior adviser at the Washington-based think tank and will become the new director of its Defense Industrial Initiatives Group. Berteau, who will take over the group from Pierre Chao, will assume his new responsibilities effective March 3, according to a Feb. 8 CSIS statement. Berteau currently is director of homeland security and national defense for Clark & Weinstock, a lobbying and consulting firm.Read the article
January 16
Guy Ben-Ari, a fellow with the CSIS Defense Industrials Initiative, was quoted by Popular Mechanics, "The Real Story Behind the F-15 Stand-down."
The trouble started on Nov. 2, when a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C crashed during an exercise. The incident quickly blossomed into a temporary, global shutdown of all F-15 flights, so that the planes — including those owned by overseas customers in countries such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Japan — could be examined. This was the fourth crash involving an F-15 model this year. "First, only noncritical flights in the U.S. were grounded," says Guy Ben-Ari, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Then it was broadened to include all noncritical flights in combat operations. Then it was broadened to all flights. That doesn't happen very often." Equally rare is the fact that international customers of the airplane followed the United States' lead in grounding their F-15s. "Makes you wonder what information they are receiving," he says. Read the article
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