Publications
"Nobody does defense policy better than CSBA. Their work on strategic and budgetary topics manages to combine first-rate quality and in-depth research with timeliness and accessibility—which is why so many professionals consider their products indispensable." – Gideon Rose, Editor of Foreign Affairs, 2010-2021
Search Publications
Studies
Strategy in Austerity
How does the leading power in the international system sustain its global position while facing the prospect of relative decline and an extended period of fiscal austerity? The answer to this question is fundamental to American policymakers’ prospects for sustaining U.S. primacy in the international system.
Studies
Changing the Game: the Promise of Directed-Energy Weapons
Emerging directed energy technologies have the potential to transition to real-world military capabilities over the next twenty years; and become a particularly promising source of operational advantage for the U.S. military.
Briefs
The Geostrategic Return of the Philippines
As the Obama administration executes its strategic “pivot” to the Western Pacific in the face of China’s military buildup, it is rediscovering the importance of a long-standing ally in the region.
Studies
The Road Ahead: Future Challenges and Their Implications for Ground Vehicle Modernization
After a decade of intensive ground operations overseas, both the Army and the Marines face important vehicle modernization issues. Addressing these issues will entail meeting two central planning challenges, the first being the inherent uncertainty of the future security environment, and the second an austere contemporary economic and budgetary environment that may exist for an extended period. This study provides a way of thinking about the Army and Marine Corps vehicle portfolios, and suggests some issues that merit attention from those tasked with determining their composition.
Briefs
The Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Budget: Continuity or Change?
DoD preview of the budget left few surprises for the actual budget release. What is more interesting in this budget request are the major changes that were not made—the dogs that didn’t bark
Briefs
Strategy in a Year of Fiscal Uncertainty
Defense strategy is about choices. In peacetime, strategy is often expressed in the budget as choices among different types of weapon systems and force structure. Bernard Brodie, writing in a 1959 RAND report, noted, “We do not have and probably never will have enough money to buy all the things we could effectively use for our defense. The choices we have to make would be difficult and painful even if our military budget were twice what it is today.” He went on to write, “In