CSBA in the News

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in effect made this Fashion Week in the military think-tank world by releasing on Monday the recommendations of five organizations that were asked to propose alternative defense postures for the U.S. 

 “Like the European powers at the start of World War I, we could find ourselves tremendously unprepared,” said Tom Mahnken, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. 

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments recently hosted a Strategic Choices Exercise, where defense analysts from a number of think tanks took turns designing their optimum future force.

The analysts and teams composed of colleagues each built 10-year budgets using a “strategic choices” tool developed by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

In its 2012 study, “The Geostrategic Return of the Philippines,” the CSBA recommended marine surveillance planes to watch the seas, anti-ship coastal defenses to deter intruders, and aerial defense systems to defend the anti-ship missiles.

If you were hoping, after a bitterly contentious presidential campaign, that at least we’d have consensus on national defense spending — tough luck. Instead, teams from five leading thinktanks, all using the same budget simulator, came up with a more than $2 trillion spread of options.