After the last Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) failed to prioritize capabilities or missions, defense observers are not confident this new review will be any different/.../Todd Harrison, a senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, suggested an independent board be appointed to perform the review, lest each service fight to preserve its own turf and force structure. As an example, he pointed to President Dwight Eisenhower’s competitive Solarium Project of 1953, where three independent teams crafted separate security policy options. Their work eventually led to Eisenhower’s New Look policy, which tried to balance military capabilities with the country’s financial resources in the 1955 budget.
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