March 08, 2019
What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Defense Budget Masterpiece
In December of 2017, before the Department of Defense released its 2019 budget request, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan tried to manage expectations about its contents. He argued that the National Defense Strategy, with its prioritization of competition with China and Russia, was so new that the Pentagon didn’t have time to fully incorporate its precepts into the 2019 budget submission. But, he told us, the 2020 budget request would be a “masterpiece,” fully funding the strategy’s direction to invest in the capabilities required to sustain the U.S. military’s advantage over China and Russia while finding more economical ways of prosecuting ongoing counter-terrorism campaigns.
During our time in the Pentagon, we were deeply involved with defense budgets and strategies. Now here we are, over a year later, patiently waiting for a budget request that perfectly aligns resources with the defense strategy and wondering: What would the 2020 defense budget request look like if now-Acting Secretary Shanahan succeeds in delivering on his promised masterpiece?
But first, a word on the problems the National Defense Strategy is trying to solve: U.S. defense strategy for the 70 years since the end of World War II has rested on two interdependent pillars: a constellation of allies and partners and an ability to conduct military operations globally. Allies and partners extend U.S. influence and provide bases and forces to support U.S. military operations. In return, the U.S. military’s ability to project power deters or defeats armed aggression against our allies and partners. Together, these pillars have prevented the outbreak of major wars and made the United States secure and immensely powerful. Today, both pillars are endangered by a combination of neglect, underinvestment, and concerted Chinese and Russian efforts to undermine them.
Read the full article in War on the Rocks.
More from CNAS
-
Will Europe Send Combat Forces to Ukraine?
Commentary
Any idea that Europe could deter Russia from breaking a cease-fire and renewing its attack with the presence of a light peacekeeping force is fantasy....
By Franz-Stefan Gady
-
There Is Still Much To Know About Drone Sightings on the East Coast
Podcast
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Stacie Pettyjohn of the Center for a New American Security, about why the federal government hasn't provided more details about drones spotted ove...
By Stacie Pettyjohn
-
Defense Expert Weighs In on Mysterious Drone Sightings
Video
Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the think tank Center for a New American Security, discusses the drone sightings, which some officials are calling "a slig...
By Stacie Pettyjohn
-
How Trump Will Change the World
Commentary
Trump has won the chance to determine U.S. national security policy and will wield the impressive power embodied in the men and women now waiting to work for him....
By Peter Feaver
