CSBA in the News

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.”

The United States’ nuclear future will be more about proliferation than abolition unless minds in foreign capitals can be changed, according to a fellow at a leading Washington think tank.

The words “bipartisan consensus” sound almost nostalgic in today’s zealously fractious Washington, D.C., but that is what happened Monday. Of course, not in Congress though, because that’s just too much to ask.

A Republican-led defense panel in Congress is set to vote on a proposed budget that ignores bipartisan pleas to protect the military’s long-term solvency by shrinking the workforce, closing bases and limiting troop pay raises/…/

Arguably most politically difficult on the think tanks’ list of cost cutting priorities is military compensation, including health care and retirement costs, a system that dates to the 1970s and has remained virtually unchanged except for acts of Congress to add further benefits/…/