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A Glimmer Of Realism?
After slamming defense financial planning for "chaos and uncertainty" in October, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments fiscal expert Todd Harrison is willing to give the new budget some credit for greater realism. In a Monday preview briefing - conducted by phone in a snow-paralyzed city - Harrison noted a "slow convergence" between successive post-sequester budgets submitted by the Pentagon and the limits imposed by the Budget Control Act (BCA) that defined the sequester.
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The Struggle to Downsize EUCOM
As the Pentagon prepares once again to cut forces and facilities on the Continent, experts say decades of downsizing have already eliminated most of the Cold War-era fat, leaving planners with a dilemma: make minor tweaks that will offer only modest savings or carry out sweeping changes that will alter the face of the military’s presence in Europe.
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Jet Engine Technology at The Heart of DoD’s Drive To Preserve At-Risk Sectors
The Pentagon for years has said it would intervene to protect vulnerable areas of the industrial base during a period of declining defense spending.
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Obama’s Shrinking Army
Plenty of cash for entitlements, but not enough for defense.
Analysis
Why Taiwan Matters
Should the United States disengage from Taiwan? Why does the island democracy matter? Are America’s security commitments to the small, isolated, Republic of China (ROC) worth both the risk and the cost? China’s impressive economic and military rise, when viewed through the prism of America’s recent economic difficulties and bouts of domestic dysfunction, has engendered amongst certain U.S. elites an exaggerated sense of America’s decline. This declinist persuasion [3], has, in turn, added grist to the arguments of proponents of U.S. military retrenchment or offshore balancing, who believe that America’s commitment to Taiwan serves little to no strategic purpose. Meanwhile, the growing strength of isolationist sentiments amongst an American populace weary of costly overseas engagements has rendered it increasingly challenging for U.S. policymakers to muster popular support for U.S. actions in remote foreign locales. Summarizing these trends, leading academics, such as John Mearsheimer, have predicted [4] that,
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Budget Cuts to Slash U.S. Army to Smallest Since Before World War Two
The Pentagon said on Monday it would shrink the U.S. Army to pre-World War Two levels, eliminate the popular A-10 aircraft and reduce military benefits in order to meet 2015 spending caps, setting up an election-year fight with the Congress over national defence priorities.