iHaveNet.com
World - Defense Is On The Table | United States
  • HOME
  • WORLD
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Balkans
    • Caucasas
    • Central Asia
    • Eastern Europe
    • Europe
    • Indian Subcontinent
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • North Africa
    • Scandinavia
    • Southeast Asia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    • Argentina
    • Australia
    • Austria
    • Benelux
    • Brazil
    • Canada
    • China
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Hungary
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Ireland
    • Israel
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Mexico
    • New Zealand
    • Pakistan
    • Philippines
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • South Africa
    • Spain
    • Taiwan
    • Turkey
    • United States
  • USA
    • ECONOMICS
    • EDUCATION
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • FOREIGN POLICY
    • POLITICS
    • OPINION
    • TRADE
    • Atlanta
    • Baltimore
    • Bay Area
    • Boston
    • Chicago
    • Cleveland
    • DC Area
    • Dallas
    • Denver
    • Detroit
    • Houston
    • Los Angeles
    • Miami
    • New York
    • Philadelphia
    • Phoenix
    • Pittsburgh
    • Portland
    • San Diego
    • Seattle
    • Silicon Valley
    • Saint Louis
    • Tampa
    • Twin Cities
  • BUSINESS
    • FEATURES
    • eBUSINESS
    • HUMAN RESOURCES
    • MANAGEMENT
    • MARKETING
    • ENTREPRENEUR
    • SMALL BUSINESS
    • STOCK MARKETS
    • Agriculture
    • Airline
    • Auto
    • Beverage
    • Biotech
    • Book
    • Broadcast
    • Cable
    • Chemical
    • Clothing
    • Construction
    • Defense
    • Durable
    • Engineering
    • Electronics
    • Firearms
    • Food
    • Gaming
    • Healthcare
    • Hospitality
    • Leisure
    • Logistics
    • Metals
    • Mining
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Newspaper
    • Nondurable
    • Oil & Gas
    • Packaging
    • Pharmaceutic
    • Plastics
    • Real Estate
    • Retail
    • Shipping
    • Sports
    • Steelmaking
    • Textiles
    • Tobacco
    • Transportation
    • Travel
    • Utilities
  • WEALTH
    • CAREERS
    • INVESTING
    • PERSONAL FINANCE
    • REAL ESTATE
    • MARKETS
    • BUSINESS
  • STOCKS
    • ECONOMY
    • EMERGING MARKETS
    • STOCKS
    • FED WATCH
    • TECH STOCKS
    • BIOTECHS
    • COMMODITIES
    • MUTUAL FUNDS / ETFs
    • MERGERS / ACQUISITIONS
    • IPOs
    • 3M (MMM)
    • AT&T (T)
    • AIG (AIG)
    • Alcoa (AA)
    • Altria (MO)
    • American Express (AXP)
    • Apple (AAPL)
    • Bank of America (BAC)
    • Boeing (BA)
    • Caterpillar (CAT)
    • Chevron (CVX)
    • Cisco (CSCO)
    • Citigroup (C)
    • Coca Cola (KO)
    • Dell (DELL)
    • DuPont (DD)
    • Eastman Kodak (EK)
    • ExxonMobil (XOM)
    • FedEx (FDX)
    • General Electric (GE)
    • General Motors (GM)
    • Google (GOOG)
    • Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
    • Home Depot (HD)
    • Honeywell (HON)
    • IBM (IBM)
    • Intel (INTC)
    • Int'l Paper (IP)
    • JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
    • J & J (JNJ)
    • McDonalds (MCD)
    • Merck (MRK)
    • Microsoft (MSFT)
    • P & G (PG)
    • United Tech (UTX)
    • Wal-Mart (WMT)
    • Walt Disney (DIS)
  • TECH
    • ADVANCED
    • FEATURES
    • INTERNET
    • INTERNET FEATURES
    • CYBERCULTURE
    • eCOMMERCE
    • mp3
    • SECURITY
    • GAMES
    • HANDHELD
    • SOFTWARE
    • PERSONAL
    • WIRELESS
  • HEALTH
    • AGING
    • ALTERNATIVE
    • AILMENTS
    • DRUGS
    • FITNESS
    • GENETICS
    • CHILDREN'S
    • MEN'S
    • WOMEN'S
  • LIFESTYLE
    • AUTOS
    • HOBBIES
    • EDUCATION
    • FAMILY
    • FASHION
    • FOOD
    • HOME DECOR
    • RELATIONSHIPS
    • PARENTING
    • PETS
    • TRAVEL
    • WOMEN
  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • BOOKS
    • TELEVISION
    • MUSIC
    • THE ARTS
    • MOVIES
    • CULTURE
  • SPORTS
    • BASEBALL
    • BASKETBALL
    • COLLEGES
    • FOOTBALL
    • GOLF
    • HOCKEY
    • OLYMPICS
    • SOCCER
    • TENNIS
  • Subscribe to RSS Feeds EMAIL ALERT Subscriptions from iHaveNet.com RSS
    • RSS | Politics
    • RSS | Recipes
    • RSS | NFL Football
    • RSS | Movie Reviews
Defense Is On The Table
Gordon Adams and Matthew Leatherman

HOME > WORLD

 

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Of all of this year's seismic shifts in the deficit and debt debate, putting defense budgets on the table is perhaps the most significant. The President's deficit commission, reinforced by the Bipartisan Policy Center's Rivlin-Domenici panel, added it to the conversation. And newly-ascendant Republicans, supported by many outside conservatives, have affirmed that fiscal discipline must include the defense budget.

The Department of Defense has not yet acknowledged this shift. Rather, Defense Secretary Robert Gates blasted the President's deficit commission report as "math, not strategy." This is an ironic judgment since the Pentagon itself has neglected strategic trade-offs for the past decade and expanded its budgets at will.

Better disciplined budgeting will require the U.S. to acknowledge that we are more secure today than at any point since 1945. Al Qaeda poses a challenge that is far more sensational than it is existential, while both a strategic nuclear exchange and major land combat are unlikely. Moreover, U.S. dominance in virtually every domain of warfare is extraordinary. Indeed, the Pentagon spends more on just research today than any other country does on their entire armed force.

Even with level or declining future budgets -- now roughly $700 billion, the highest since 1947 -- the U.S. military would be the only one able to patrol the seas globally, carry out long-range air strike operations, and deploy ground forces worldwide. It still would be the only military with global transportation, logistics, communications, and intelligence capabilities. And our Special Forces alone are and would remain larger than the entire militaries of two-thirds of the countries in the world.

Recognizing the unique security we enjoy, fiscal responsibility is needed now more than ever. Secretary Gates is leading an effort to shift $100 billion over five years from overhead to warfighting, but this will not be sufficient. Defense spending must actually fall. This will require a decision to prioritize defense missions that are probable, consequential, achievable, and appropriate, to calculate acceptable levels of risk, and to tailor the force and its budget to match.

Dismantling the al Qaeda network and proactively dealing with cybersecurity should be our top military priorities. Large-scale conventional combat, conventional deterrence, and sea lane patrol also are important, but our challenges in these areas are less severe and our capabilities already are more than adequate to address them. Most importantly, counterinsurgency and nation-building should decline significantly in priority after our forces depart Iraq and Afghanistan.

Setting such mission priorities would do what the February Quadrennial Defense Review failed to do: constrain the defense budget to strategy and priority missions and deliberately manage risk. It would also demand tough choices on personnel and investment, the areas that Secretary Gates has said he most wants to protect.

The military has grown by 92,000 ground forces over the past decade in order to conduct long counterinsurgency and nation-building campaigns, part of what Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey calls the "era of persistent conflict." Persistent conflict is unlikely because the U.S. can choose and always has chosen the conflicts in which it will engage. The ground force growth should gradually be reversed. In addition, our European and Asian allies are sufficiently secure to permit a drawdown of 80,000 US forces that are permanently stationed overseas. This includes South Korea, whose military now is ample to deal with its North Korean adversary.

Administratively, another 100,000 positions can be eliminated from the half-million service-members that the Pentagon classifies as serving in overhead positions. The decision to limit the military's missions means that they will not need to be replaced by civilians or contractors. Each of these personnel cuts should generate a corresponding reduction in training and equipment costs, providing additional savings.

Mission prioritization and management discipline should also govern investment choices. The U.S. still is buying programs designed for Cold War-style major conventional conflict. We can lower that investment by continuing our current fighter jet programs rather than building a new F-35 line; by slowing the rate at which we buy new Virginia-class attack submarines; by divesting from missile defenses that are either unwanted or unworkable; and by canceling the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle designed for amphibious assaults last executed in the Korean War. Only conflict with China or Russia would warrant these costs. Neither is at all likely and, it would take decades for either state to match the U.S.' current conventional superiority.

Choosing mission priorities, managing efficiently, and budgeting accordingly can contribute roughly $1 trillion to deficit reduction by 2020 while making the Pentagon more fiscally responsible and maintaining -- even sharpening -- the point of the spear of the world's most superior military. Rarely has this task been more urgent. Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently concluded that "the single-biggest threat to our national security is our debt." He is right, and now is the time to address it. U.S. national security permits us to spend less on defense, and our fiscal circumstances require it.

 

Foreign Affairs, January/February 2011

Dr. Gordon Adams is a Professor of International Relations at the School of International Service and Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. Matthew Leatherman is Research Associate at the Stimson Center and a regular contributor to its blog, The Will and the Wallet.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

 

Available at Amazon.com:

Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World

Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East (The Contemporary Middle East)

Enemies of Intelligence

The End of History and the Last Man

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?

Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource

Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water

Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization

The Great Gamble

At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes

Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century

Dining With al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East

Uprising: Will Emerging Markets Shape or Shake the World Economy

 

  • The Political Power of Social Media
  • West Is Best? Why Civilizations Rise and Fall
  • Exploring the Influence of Culture on Military Doctrine
  • The Good News About Gas
  • Less Than Zero: Bursting the New Disarmament Bubble
  • Why Moscow Says No
  • A Third Way to Palestine - Fayyadism and Its Discontents
  • The Dangers of a Nuclear Iran
  • Plan B in Afghanistan
  • The Fallout of the Global Gun Trade
  • Finish the Job: How the War in Afghanistan Can Be Won
  • Why the Rich Are Getting Richer
  • A Leaner and Meaner Defense
  • Defense Is On The Table
  • The American 21st Century
  • Culture Matters: Real Obstacles to Latin American Development
  • A Wave of Christianophobia
  • Lessons From the Iraq War for Afghanistan
  • Foreign Policy Review Suggests a Losing Effort
  • Iran: Glow, Little Glow Worm, Glow
  • Believe in Violence and Be Saved
  • Colonialism Still at Heart of Africa's Growing Pains
  • The Empty Chair
  • North Korea: The World's Problem Child
  • Save the North Koreans!
  • For Middle East Peace, Israel Must Prepare for Nuclear War
  • Iran Nuclear Talks: A Widening Chasm
  • A Sordid Dance in Afghanistan
  • Holding the Course in Afghanistan
  • As New START Debate Rages, Quiet Nuclear Progress With Russia
  • Argentina Needs to Face Education Debacle
  • A World Full of Fault Lines
  • Facebook, Twitter and the Search for Peace in the Middle East
  • China's Leadership: Fractures Finally Showing
  • China: Uncertain Leap Forward
  • Britain and China: Being Friendly
  • Belarus: Land Between
  • Sudan's Referendum: Prickly Interdependence
  • Saudi Arabian Foreign Policy: Limits of Being Helpful
  • Iraq Refugees: Seeking Safety
  • Troublesome Partner in Afghanistan
  • NATO Presses on With Futile Effort in Afghanistan
  • Counterfeit Medicines: Health and Harm
  • Food Supply: Lunchtime Blues
  • Cybersecurity and Society: bigsociety.com
  • America's Credibility Deficit
  • Global Warming Conference Faces Meltdown
  • WikiLeaks Disclosures Not Earth Shattering
  • WikiLeaks May End Up Helping America
  • WikiLeaks and The Invisible Government
  • Wikileaks: More Than Just an Embarrassment
  • Wikileaks: Undiplomatic Diplomacy
  • A WikiLeaks Wake-up Call
  • Will WikiLeaks Hobble U.S. Diplomacy?
  • How WikiLeaks Can Make Us Less Free
  • Wikileaks: Small Revelations That May Cause a Big Idea to Take Hold
  • G20 Summit: Hitting Singles in Seoul
  • The Consequences of Fiscal Irresponsibility
  • GDP Now Matters More Than Force: Policy for the Age of Economic Power
  • What Population Growth and Decline Means for the Global Economy
  • Leading Through Civilian Power: Redefining Diplomacy and Development
  • The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective
  • Who Do You Call If You Want to Divide Europe?
  • The Game Changer: Coping With China's Foreign Policy Revolution
  • Why the Retirement Age Is Increasing
  • Religion's Growing Influence in International Politics
  • The Difficulty of Integrating Rising Powers
  • Ban-ki Moon Has United Nations 'Drifting Into Irrelevance'
  • Bachelet Faces Uphill Battle at U.N. Women
  • Murderous Tactics Fueling Terrorist Propaganda
  • Benjamin Netanyahu: A Hawk in the Ointment
  • Diminished Capacity
  • Moscow's Modernization Dilemma: Is Russia Charting a New Foreign Policy?
  • NATO Summit Unlikely to Answer the Most Important Questions
  • Franco-German Call for Change in the EU Meets with Much Opposition
  • A Tenuous Deal in Iraq
  • Conflict or Cooperation? Three Visions Revisited
  • A New Global Player: Brazil's Far-Flung Agenda
  • Pax Ottomana? The Mixed Success of Turkey's New Foreign Policy
  • Rise of the Mezzanine Rulers
  • Globalizing the Energy Revolution
  • Democracy in Cyberspace
  • The Digital Disruption
  • Africa: Agriculture's Final Frontier
  • A Reading List for the Twenty-first Century
  • Latin American Leaders Could Have Learned From South Korea
  • Region Ignoring Venezuela Coup Threats
  • To Fight Corruption, Start Cutting Red Tape
  • New Congress Won't Lead to 'Fortress America'
  • The Shifting Balance of Power
  • Checking China's Territorial Moves
  • Why China Has a Point About Quantitative Easing
  • China's Rate Hike: Winners and Losers
  • Taiwan's Shadow
  • Fools Rush in Where Europe Rushes Out
  • Germany to Muhammad: Go Home
  • Can NATO Nudge Russia Westward?
  • French Demonstrations Tell a Familiar Tale
  • Chavez a Pain for Spain
  • Nestor Kirchner's Death May Mark End of an Era
  • Petraeus Follows Iraq Formula in Afghanistan
  • Heavy Handed Intervention Has Stalled Arab-Israeli Peace Process
  • George Clooney Urges Obama and Media To Focus On Sudan
  • Fighting Hunger in Des Moines
  • Rise in Tourism to Miami May Signal Danger Ahead
  • Peru May Be Next Latin American Success Story
  • Nobel Winner Right About Risks of e-Books
  • Nestor Kirchner's Death May Mark End of an Era
  • Chavez a Pain for Spain
  • Economic Woes Put Brittle Nations on Edge

 

Copyright 2011 Council on Foreign Relations, publisher of Foreign Affairs. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Media Services.

 

Recommend

Search Powered By Google

Google Search   

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT

Job & Career Search

career & job search                    job title, keywords, company, location
  • HOME
  • WORLD
  • USA
  • BUSINESS
  • WEALTH
  • STOCKS
  • TECH
  • HEALTH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • SPORTS

World - Defense Is On The Table | Global Viewpoint

  • Services:
  • RSS Feeds
  • Shopping
  • Email Alerts
  • Site Map
  • Privacy