Analysis

The Obama Administration’s Risky Disarmament Agenda
  • June 21, 2013
  • The Washington Post

President Obama has announced the next step in his quixotic quest to achieve a nuclear-free world. Speaking at the Brandenburg Gate this week, the president proposed reductions in U.S. nuclear forces to about 1,000 deployed strategic warheads; that represents a cut of more than 30 percent from the level of the 2010 New START agreement. While the offer was placed in the context of a bilateral agreement with Russia, Obama’s words were carefully chosen. He did not rule out unilateral reductions — something the president’s top advisers have indicated might happen if Moscow refuses to reduce its forces — or pursuing an arrangement outside of the constitutional treaty process.

Press Releases

CSBA Report: Upcoming QDR Should Change the Mix of Capabilities
  • June 18, 2013

“The Pentagon has an opportunity to use its upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to define and then resource a new mix of military capabilities that will be needed for future contingency operations,” argues a new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report released at a congressional briefing last week.

In the News

Analyst: 2014 Defense Review Offers Opportunity for Real Reform
  • June 17, 2013
  • National Defense Magazine

Instead of shoehorning its current force structure within a confined budget, the U.S. military should decide what it wants to be able to accomplish in the future and then design an affordable force to achieve those goals, a new study on the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review contends.

In the News

Slip-Sliding Toward Obama’s Third War
  • June 14, 2013
  • National Journal

Earlier this year, the CIA concluded that arming the rebels with small-scale weapons—what is likely now being considered—could not tip the balance of the conflict. U.S. and Israeli officials still fear that delivering anything larger or more lethal, such as antitank or surface-to-air missiles, could be used on U.S., Israeli, or commercial targets if they fell into terrorist hands. Chris Dougherty, an expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, says the “ideal” weapons to arm the Syrian opposition groups—such as man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) that could counter the Syrian Air Force’s control of the skies, antitank guided munitions such as the FGM-148 Javelin, and GPS- or laser-guided mortar rounds—are also the weapons that “have the most potential for blowback.”

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