Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Kathleen Hicks, a senior fellow with the CSIS International Security Program, and Anthony Cordesman, the CSIS Arleigh Burke Chair in Strategy, were quoted by Government Executive, "Girding for Battle."
In the Media | Detail
Kathleen Hicks, a senior fellow with the CSIS International Security Program, and Anthony Cordesman, the CSIS Arleigh Burke Chair in Strategy, were quoted by Government Executive, "Girding for Battle."
Six years into the longest period of sustained combat since Vietnam, the U.S. military is suffering from strategic drift, uncertain about which of many potential security threats should determine the future size and composition of the armed forces.
The military services already are building their analytic capabilities for the looming budget battle many expect to coincide with the next Quadrennial Defense Review. The congressionally mandated QDR occurs every four years and is designed to align national security strategy to resources and force levels to address future threats. The next QDR, due in early 2010, will coincide with a new presidential administration and new management team at the Pentagon. That group will have almost a year to shape the final draft of the review. This QDR - the fourth since Congress mandated the reviews in 1997 - must issue specific guidance and make tough decisions regarding Defense budgeting and force levels. The Defense Department's base budget, not counting emergency supplemental appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan, is approaching $500 billion. Planned investment in new weapons systems has doubled from $750 billion in 2001 to almost $1.5 trillion in 2007.
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