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The Road to Defense Budget Disaster
As Katherine Blakeley of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments explains in an analysis of the administration’s defense budget request, the legislative calendar that awaits lawmakers when they return from August recess provides little room to negotiate a compromise. Blakeley, and others, have noted that the most likely scenario a continuing resolution for the first months of fiscal 2018. And this is all taking place despite the president’s party holding majorities in both houses of Congress. It is also occurring as the United States continues to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ramps up counterterrorism operations elsewhere, and as the president threatens North Korea and, more recently, Venezuela.
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Army Most Sensitive to Personnel Cost Changes
The Army is the most sensitive to changes in the costs of military personnel because they account for more of its budget than other services, according to a new analysis from the think tank by Katherine Blakeley.
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China Boosts Indian Ocean Presence
Now a great power with global interests, China has been intensifying its presence and influence, particularly in the Indian Ocean, considered an essential sea lane linking the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and South China Sea.
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Jim Mattis calls looming stop-gap budget ‘as unwise as can be’ for military
The legislative calendar is running short and remains packed with difficult political issues such appropriations legislation, a debt ceiling increase, tax reform, and potentially another run at Obamacare repeal. That makes a continuing resolution covering several months likely, according to an analysis this month by Katherine Blakeley, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
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Navy’s surface warfare boss urges smarter, tougher sailors for future sea battles
Rowden and other commanders often shy away from naming the potential enemies these strike groups might fight, but the opening day of the conference spotlighted speeches by Toshi Yoshihara, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; plus Thomas Fedyszyn and Richard A. Moss, both professors at the Naval War College. Yoshihara is one of the world’s foremost experts on the Chinese navy. The professors specialize in analyzing Russia’s military.
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‘Tremendous Uncertainty’ Surrounds the Defense Budget
“Although the exact figures vary, … [key congressional committees] have all marked to a total national defense topline that is about $30 billion more than the Trump administration’s PB 2018 request,” Katherine Blakeley, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said in a recent policy paper…