Washington, D.C., September 11, 2020 – The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), the world’s premier center for understanding future international competition and conflict, today launched the second season of its annual Congressional Defense Seminar Series. This acclaimed and highly selective program will bring together professional staff members from Congress for an evening series of topical seminars that aims to provide staffers with the tools to master the conceptual foundations of defense policy as well as the intricacies of contemporary national security processes. The forum comprises six weekly sessions beginning in October 2020 and will feature senior CSBA scholars and outside experts on national security policy.
According to CSBA Board Member and former U.S. Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA), “Today’s Hill staffers must process vast quantities of information in order to assist elected representatives in making crucial decisions regarding defense issues. They manage huge portfolios across a broad array of issues while attempting to evaluate competing and ever-changing approaches to strategy and resources. I know of no organization better positioned than CSBA, with its world-class experts and reputation for intellectual integrity, to provide staff members at every level with a bipartisan architecture upon which they can better understand, evaluate, and communicate the complicated national defense issues facing our nation. I encourage anyone who must advise or assist congressional policy makers in national defense not to miss this truly unique opportunity.”
The six-week program will include the following topics:
- Defense Strategy, Long Term Competition, and Force Planning;
- Defining the Threat and the Future Operating Environment;
- Technology and Innovation;
- Nuclear Deterrence in the 21st Century;
- Organizing for and Operating in Space
- The Defense Budget: Policy, Process, and Stakeholders;
In addition to offering deeply researched, independent assessments of this subject matter, the CSBA Congressional Defense Seminar Series will provide a nonpartisan forum to staffers to build relationships and engage with subject matter experts on emerging trends in technology, the defense innovation base, and geopolitics. According to Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken, CSBA’s President and CEO, “This program is deliberately designed to help busy Hill staffers become better consumers of defense information and to help them command the core concerns of long-term strategy, the changing character of warfare, and evolving concepts of deterrence. We also hope to help engage and develop the next generation of defense policy leaders in an environment that is as socially engaging as it is intellectually demanding. We particularly look forward to building upon the successes of last year.”