New MEQ Features Gaza Strategy Proposal News from the Middle East Forum
https://www.meforum.org/64493/new-meq-features-gaza
https://www.meforum.org/64493/new-meq-features-gaza
Given the grave rhetoric, reports of possible 10% to 20% cuts to Army special operations forces — a prime force for competing in the “gray zone” to achieve U.S. aims short of armed conflict — seem misaligned with U.S. goals. While it is important to weigh the potential strategic ramifications of these reductions, it is as critical to recognize that they are just the latest manifestation of a misalignment between U.S. defense strategy and resources. – Defense News
In the twentieth century, various intellectual factions struggled to define how conservatism should respond to a transformed constitutional order.
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The Debt Ceiling’s Geopolitical StakesAs the U.S. scrambles to shore up its position in the Indo-Pacific, unsound finances at home threaten its military readiness.
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Why the Budget Deal Is Good News for Defense—with One Key Exception
Elaine McCusker | Breaking Defense
Elaine McCusker | Breaking Defense
Defense Budget: The Storied Unfunded Priorities Lists
Elaine McCusker and John G. Ferrari | April 2023
Congress requires select uniformed and civilian leaders in the Pentagon to submit unfunded priority lists (UPLs) each year shortly after the president’s budget is released. In performing its constitutional responsibilities, Congress uses the UPLs, as the best judgment and advice of senior leaders, to understand risk inherent in the defense budget.
This year’s UPLs total $16.9 billion and are notable in part for what they do not include: requests for assistance in addressing inflation that was not part of the budget request.
As in previous years, investment accounts continue to dominate the UPLs, providing continuing evidence that defense needs both capacity and capability to perform its missions.
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Elaine McCusker and John G. Ferrari | April 2023
Congress requires select uniformed and civilian leaders in the Pentagon to submit unfunded priority lists (UPLs) each year shortly after the president’s budget is released. In performing its constitutional responsibilities, Congress uses the UPLs, as the best judgment and advice of senior leaders, to understand risk inherent in the defense budget.
This year’s UPLs total $16.9 billion and are notable in part for what they do not include: requests for assistance in addressing inflation that was not part of the budget request.
As in previous years, investment accounts continue to dominate the UPLs, providing continuing evidence that defense needs both capacity and capability to perform its missions.
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Time Is Money: The Importance of On-Time Annual Appropriations
Elaine McCusker | AEIdeas
Defense Fiscal Year Countdown
American Enterprise Institute
Elaine McCusker | AEIdeas
Defense Fiscal Year Countdown
American Enterprise Institute
- Rediscovering Geostrategy by Peter Navarro
- Elbridge Colby and Clausewitzian Diplomacy by Francis P. Sempa
DEFEATING RUSSIA & CHINA Read Full Monograph
Reforming Defense Budgeting
Elaine McCusker | AEI Foreign and Defense Policy Working Paper Series
The defense budget funds has an increasing number of programs that do not produce military capability. Elaine McCusker explains that absent intervention, this trend will likely continue. As the US rethinks defense budgeting, it is useful to examine three key challenges. First, the Defense Department budget contains nearly $109 billion in spending that does not directly produce military capability. Second, as the definition of national security continues to expand, the number of noncore missions, programs, and activities funded by the defense budget will likely grow. Third, key characteristics of the defense budget need improvement. The budget should be transparent, responsive, and flexible in quickly taking advantage of technological advances. Currently, the defense budget struggles to be any of these things. Read the working paper here. >>
Elaine McCusker | AEI Foreign and Defense Policy Working Paper Series
The defense budget funds has an increasing number of programs that do not produce military capability. Elaine McCusker explains that absent intervention, this trend will likely continue. As the US rethinks defense budgeting, it is useful to examine three key challenges. First, the Defense Department budget contains nearly $109 billion in spending that does not directly produce military capability. Second, as the definition of national security continues to expand, the number of noncore missions, programs, and activities funded by the defense budget will likely grow. Third, key characteristics of the defense budget need improvement. The budget should be transparent, responsive, and flexible in quickly taking advantage of technological advances. Currently, the defense budget struggles to be any of these things. Read the working paper here. >>
Congress: Find the Savings and Hold the Defense-Budget Cuts
Mackenzie Eaglen and Thomas Spoehr | 19fortyfive.com
Congress finds itself torn between the twin imperatives to supply defense programs and reduce annual deficits to put the economy on a sound path. Mackenzie Eaglen and Thomas Spoehr identify ways the Pentagon can save and reinvest money to confront China. First, serious defense reform is the patient work of many years and requires allowing reformers to carefully cut and trim where necessary. Next, broad coalitions must advocate needed updates to the defense bureaucracy. Third, change requires up-front costs before the US can reap meaningful savings. Finally, continuing to avoid reform is unhelpful to those in uniform, since reform will free up funds for reinvestment in the things the military needs. Read more here. >>
Mackenzie Eaglen and Thomas Spoehr | 19fortyfive.com
Congress finds itself torn between the twin imperatives to supply defense programs and reduce annual deficits to put the economy on a sound path. Mackenzie Eaglen and Thomas Spoehr identify ways the Pentagon can save and reinvest money to confront China. First, serious defense reform is the patient work of many years and requires allowing reformers to carefully cut and trim where necessary. Next, broad coalitions must advocate needed updates to the defense bureaucracy. Third, change requires up-front costs before the US can reap meaningful savings. Finally, continuing to avoid reform is unhelpful to those in uniform, since reform will free up funds for reinvestment in the things the military needs. Read more here. >>
Bad Idea: Looking for Easy Solutions for PPBE Reform
The means by which the Department of Defense decides how to spend its budget has long been criticized as needlessly complex and incapable of helping policymakers choose among investments to meet strategic goals. Seeking solutions, Congress created the Commission on PPBE Reform in the 2022 defense policy bill. But the reforms the system needs may not be as obvious as they seem.
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The means by which the Department of Defense decides how to spend its budget has long been criticized as needlessly complex and incapable of helping policymakers choose among investments to meet strategic goals. Seeking solutions, Congress created the Commission on PPBE Reform in the 2022 defense policy bill. But the reforms the system needs may not be as obvious as they seem.
Read more »
Turkey's More Independent Foreign Policy, with Christopher Preble, Melanie Marlowe, and Aaron Stein
Fixing America’s Defense Budget
By Elaine McCusker, RealClearDefense: “As Congress prepares to review the fiscal year 2024 federal budget request, new opportunities are emerging that can provide for America’s defense while still prioritizing cost saving and fiscal responsibility."
By Elaine McCusker, RealClearDefense: “As Congress prepares to review the fiscal year 2024 federal budget request, new opportunities are emerging that can provide for America’s defense while still prioritizing cost saving and fiscal responsibility."
Joe Biden’s Aspirational Defense Budget
The Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Budget Falls $40 Billion Short
The Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Budget Falls $40 Billion Short
The Great Illusion of 2023
By Francis P. Sempa, The American Spectator: "Economic interdependence and globalization does not lessen the likelihood of war or the need to prepare for it."
By Francis P. Sempa, The American Spectator: "Economic interdependence and globalization does not lessen the likelihood of war or the need to prepare for it."
The Battle for Eurasia’s Borderlands
By Antonia Colibasanu, Geopolitical Futures: "Borderlands have long been an object of scrutiny in the realm of geopolitics, as they represent a point of convergence, interaction and oftentimes conflict between nations and political systems."
By Antonia Colibasanu, Geopolitical Futures: "Borderlands have long been an object of scrutiny in the realm of geopolitics, as they represent a point of convergence, interaction and oftentimes conflict between nations and political systems."
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