 |
|
  It's time to scrutinize the Pentagon, by Charles Knight, Carl Conetta, and James P. McGovern, Minuteman Media, 1 January 2009. The Pentagon budget constitutes so much of our discretionary spending and has contributed so much to our deficit spending that we can no longer afford to look the other way.
Forceful Engagement: Rethinking the Role of Military Power in US Global Policy (full text .pdf with graphics) (full text .html, no graphics) (exec. summary .html), by Carl Conetta, December 2008. The US has been using its armed forces beyond the limit of their utility. The result is not just diminishing returns, but negative ones.
Re-Envisioning Defense: An Agenda for US Policy Debate & Transition (full text .pdf with graphics) (full text .html, no graphics) (exec. summary .html), updated December 2008. Summarizes problem areas in recent US defense policy as well as several broad topics of debate that touch on them all.
Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY2009, Foreign Policy in Focus and the Center for Defense Information, September 2008. Proposal re-balances defense, homeland security, and international affairs expenditures. PDA is a member of report's task force.
Symposium: The Role of Force & the Armed Forces in US Foreign Policy -- What have we learned?, Security Policy Working Group, 10 April 2008.
Cul de Sac: 9/11 and the Paradox of American Power (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf), by Carl Conetta, PDA Research Monograph #13, 05 February 2008. Post-Cold War US security policy evinces a disturbing paradox: it has been delivering less and less security at ever increasing cost. The reasons reside not in the differences between the Bush and Clinton administration, but in their points of similarity.
A Prisoner to Primacy (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf), by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Memo #43, 05 February 2008. The United States is entering a period of policy transition, but there is a dearth of new thinking regarding security policy. The debate remains paralyzed by 9/11 and mesmerized by military primacy. Progress depends on rethinking the role of force.
 Neoliberal & Neoconservative Security Policy: Views, Criticism, Alternatives a PDA compilation, updated 02 February 2008.
Army reset costs, cost of permanent bases in Iraq, National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, Pakistan's state of emergency by Bipasha Ray. Defense Analysis Bulletin #5, 08 December 2007.
Dissuading China and Fighting the 'Long War', World Policy Journal. The 2006 US Defense Review advanced two new strategic vectors for the US armed forces - one targets a putative "global Islamic insurgency"; the other puts America on a collison course with China.
Congressional withdrawal plans, permanent bases in Iraq, increase in ground troops by Bipasha Ray. Defense Analysis Bulletin #4, 01 May 2007.
Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY2008, Foreign Policy in Focus and the Center for Defense Information, April 2007. Proposal re-balances defense, homeland security, and international affairs expenditures. PDA is a member of report's task force.
America speaks out: Is the United States spending too much on defense? (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Memo #41, 26 March 2007. Today, the United States is responsible for half of total world military spending. A recent Gallup poll shows that Americans are beginning to have second thoughts.
No Good Reason to "Grow" the US Army and Marine Corps, by Carl Conetta, Common Dreams, 01 February 2007.
Experts give poor grades to expected defense budget proposal. By Bipasha Ray, Defense Analysis Bulletin #2, 01 February 2007. The fiscal 2008 defense budget to be released Feb. 5 will fall short of requirements, yet continue to be packed with pork despite recent reforms, according to defense experts at a briefing on Thursday.
No good reason to boost Army, Marine Corps
end strength (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Report #20, 31 January 2007. The proposal to add 92,000 personnel to US ground forces will combine with other initiatives to greatly increase America's capacity to sustain large, protracted ground operations overseas. And it will enable an indefinite stay in Iraq. The rationale for this capability misconstrues the lessons of the Iraq war and America's true security requirements. The memo also reviews recent and possible future deployment patterns.
Priorities for the 110th Congress, Security Policy Working Group, December 2006 (printable full text .pdf).
Curbing Weapons Proliferation and Preventing War: William D. Hartung
Real Debates, Real Information, Real Oversight, Winslow Wheeler
Get Serious About Global Warming, Charles Knight
Paying for War: It's All About Revenue, Anita Dancs
Fighting on Borrowed Time: The Effect on US Military Readiness of America's post-9/11 Wars (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Report #19, 11 September 2006. To sustain today's wars, the Bush administration has adopted a policy of "risk displacement". High optempo is maintained in Iraq and Afghanistan at the expense of readiness elsewhere and for other missions. The policy also saps future readiness. It may take the US military half a decade to recover.
Pyrrhus on the Potomac: How America's post-9/11 wars have undermined US national security (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Report #18, 05 September 2006. A net assessment of America's post-911
security policy shows it to be "pyrrhic" in character: although progress has
been made in disrupting Al Qaeda, the broader effect has
been to increase the threat to the United States, while weakening the nation's
capacity to respond effectively.
 Report of the task force on a Unified Security Budget for the United States, 2007, Lawrence Korb and Miriam Pemberton, principal authors, Foreign Policy in Focus and the Center for Defense Information, 03 May 2006, Guest Publication, (printable .pdf file). Builds a unified budget for all aspects of national security and assesses the opportunities for improved security through altering the balance among defense, homeland security, and international affairs expenditures. PDA is a member of report's task force. David Unger cites this report in Our Indefensible National Security Budget, The New York Times, 20 September 2006.
The Pentagon's Disconnect Between Planned Forces and Missions, by Carl Conetta, Global Beat Syndicate, 16 February 2006.
QDR 2006: Do The Forces Match the Missions? DOD Gives Little Reason to Believe (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Memo #36, 10 February 2006. Critical view of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) assesses the match between future missions and assets. Sections summarize the key missions and force enhancements proposed in the QDR.
Key excerpts from the 18 January 2006 draft of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review ( .html file) (printable .pdf file) selected by Charles Knight, 24 January 2006. On 23 January 2006 InsideDefense.com published 42 pages of material excerpted from a 127 page "18 January 2006 draft working paper" version of the QDR. This is a selection (about 6% of the total QDR text) from those excerpts.
Is the Iraq war sapping America's military power? Cautionary data and perspectives by Carl Conetta, Charles Knight, and Melissa Murphy. Project on Defense Alternatives, 22 October 2004.
Charts, Reference Material:
The Bush Doctrine: Origins, Evolution, Alternatives by Mark Gerard Mantho. PDA Guest Publication, April 2004 (.pdf file). The Bush administration's national security doctrine represents the most sweeping change in U.S. foreign policy since World War II and was the conceptual underpinning of the President's decision to invade Iraq. Yet few Americans realize where the policy came from, who crafted it, or even what it is.
Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Idea of a "New Warfare" (full text .html) (executive summary .html) (full text .pdf) (executive summary .pdf) by Carl Conetta. PDA Research Monograph #9, 18 February 2004. Examines the Pentagon's treatment of the civilian casualty issue in the Iraq and Afghan wars, reviews the "spin" and "news frames" used by defense officials to shape the public debate over casualties, and critiques the concept of a "precision warfare" as misleading. Case studies include the Baghdad bombing campaign. An appendix provides a comprehensive Guide to Surveys and Reporting on Casualties in the Afghan and Iraq Wars.
Saving General Shinseki: on the future of wheeled armor (full text .html) (full text .pdf) by Lutz Unterseher. PDA Guest Publication, February 2004. Presents the specifications for a 'hybrid' combat vehicle featuring: considerable, versatile firepower (kinetic energy and fragmentation) without the weight penalty of a main gun system; a high degree of crew protection; better strategic mobility than current tracked armor; superior operational mobility; and acceptable tactical mobility.
The New Occupation: How Preventive War is Wrecking the Military by Charles Knight and Marcus Corbin, Security Policy Working Group Commentary, 04 January 2004.
Fear-mongering and the Next Unnecessary War by Charles Knight, PDA Commentary, 20 July 2003.
9/11 and the Meanings of Military Transformation by Carl Conetta, Project on Defense Alternatives, 06 February 2003. This article examines a ten-year failure to adapt US security policy to post-Cold War realities and assesses how well three different concepts of military transformation correspond to these new realities. Originally published in Security After 9/11: Strategy Choices and Budget Tradeoffs by the Security Policy Working Group, January 2003 (.pdf file). A compilation of eight articles that gauge the cost and effectiveness of post-9/11 US security policy offering assessments of counter-terrorism, homeland security, and military transformation policies in light of alternative options and budget tradeoffs. Executive summaries and author contact information included.
Essential Elements Missing in the National Security Strategy of 2002 by Charles Knight, PDA Commentary, November 2002. For an official document of the U.S. government, the Bush National Security Strategy of 2002 is disturbingly insubstantial, ideological, and, at times, disingenuous. (printable .pdf file)
The "New Warfare" and the New American Calculus of War by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Memo #26, 30 September 2002. US methods of warfare have changed substantially since the Cold War's end. So have the norms governing the use of force. Since 11 September 2001 there has been an increased impetus to more fully exercise US military primacy and test the promise of the new warfare. Unfortunately, this impetus has not been matched with adequate analysis of either the new methods or the new norms of war.
The Pentagon's New Budget, New Strategy, and New War by Carl Conetta. PDA Briefing Report #12, 25 June 2002. Examines the new US military strategy as codified in the September 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review and practiced in the Afghan war. The report contrasts the new QDR with its 1997 predecessor, paying special attention to the Bush administration's "new concept of deterrence." Published in Hegemonie oder Stabilität: Alternativen zur Militarisierung der Politik, edited by Volker Kröning (MdB), Lutz Unterseher, and Günter Verheugen (Hrsg.) Bremen: Edition Temmen, August 2002.
What Justifies Military Intervention? commentary by Charles Knight, 27 September 2001. Examines the problems for international security associated with U.S. military intervention abroad. Includes a Postscript on the "war on terrorism" (revised 01 March 2002) and Selected Readings on the doctrines of Just War, Total War, and Strategic Bombing (revised 01 March 2002).
A Response to Ivan Eland's "Bush Versus the Defense Establishment" in Issues in Science and Technology Forum, Fall 2001 by Charles Knight, PDA Commentary, Fall 2001. The most profound effect of new technologies in military affairs is not an expanding choice of hardware but rather the opportunities technological developments provide to reorganize the way humans do their military work.
Disengaged Warfare: Should we make a virtue of the Kosovo way of war? by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Memo #21, May 2001. Offers a critical perspective on "strategic precision attack" in US warfighting plans and doctrine, tracing this tenet to "risk aversion" and America's diminished stake in distant conflicts. While the concept of "strategic precision attack" promises to avert battlefield risks, this memo argues that in the end it transplants the risk to the strategic level.
|
|
|
|
|
A New US Military Strategy: Issues and Options by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, PDA Briefing Memo #20, May 2001. Reviews the principal strategy debates of the 1990s with an eye toward the options under consideration by the Bush administration.
Rotocraft for War: Descending on a Military Dilemma by Dr. Lutz Unterseher, PDA Briefing Memo #19, May 2001. Offers a critical assessment of the value of combat helicopters in modern war with examination of the technical characteristics and limits of combat helicopters, the doctrine for their use, and issues of cost. Case studies include the Gulf War, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
Concepts for Transformation from Breaking the Phalanx by Col. Douglas A. Macgregor, a briefing for the Raytheon Corporation, 19 February 2001 ( 3.8 MB PowerPoint Presentation -- download free PowerPoint Viewer ). In the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict there has been a broader and deeper recognition that the Army must change if it is to remain strategically relevant. Col. Macgregor offers a vision of a modular Army comprising various types of basic combined-arms units that would be much smaller than today's divisions, but larger and more capable than today's brigades. This is an Army that is not only rapidly-adaptable and rapidly-deployable, but also "joint" and "combined" from the bottom up. See also The Macgregor Briefings: An Information Age Vision for the U.S. Army.
The Paradoxes of post-Cold War US Defense Policy: An Agenda for the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review Project on Defense Alternatives Briefing Memo #18, 05 February 2001. Recent defense planning discussions have tended to focus on military readiness and modernization issues, but a broader purview is needed and must address three persistent paradoxes of post-Cold War US defense policy.
Also available in print. $4.00 
Bigger Budgets Will Not Cure the Pentagon's Ills by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, op-ed in the Boston Globe, 08 October 2000. Traces recent Pentagon problems to a failure to implement defense reform and adapt to the conditions of the new era. A short bibliography of relevant online material (with links) is included.
Can the United States Spend Less on Defense? -- Toward a Smaller, More Efficient, and More Relevant US Military Project on Defense Alternatives Briefing Memo #17, October 2000. Examines issues of threat assessment, strategy, and force management, identifying options for moving toward a smaller, less expensive US military. It concludes that in several ways current US strategy is unnecessarily ambitious and that the armed forces are poorly adapted to present day needs. It suggests adjustment in several areas, including regional war preparations, military presence abroad, and the diplomatic activity of the US military. The memo also proposes a variety of structural reforms to increase the efficiency of the armed forces.
Also available in print. $5.00
The Armed Forces: "used too much and supported too little"? by Charles Knight, PDA Commentary, September 2000. George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency saying the "military suffers from back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, and rapidly declining readiness." In evaluating this claim it is worth examining each of the four specifics that Governor Bush offered as evidence. This commentary provides a guide to the pertinent evidence as collected, organized, and analyzed by the Project on Defense Alternatives in its 1999 study of readiness issues in the Air Force.
Wheels or Tracks? On the "Lightness" of Military Expeditions by Dr. Lutz Unterseher, PDA Briefing Memo #16, July 2000. Can the US Army hope to achieve its vision of a "full-spectrum" ground force riding entirely on wheeled vehicles? This paper examines the key technical and tactical issues and reviews the history of the "wheels vs. tracks" debate, looking both at operational experience and recent technological developments.
U.S. Military-Strategic Ambitions -- Expanding to Fill the post-Soviet Vacuum by Charles Knight, PDA Commentary, adapted from a panel presentation at the Council on Foreign Relations, N.Y.C, 14 June 2000. When seeking to explain why defense budgets are growing again, it is often said that U.S. policy-makers have not yet moved beyond the Cold War frame and are preparing for the proverbial "last war." Such a vantage glosses over an important change that has taken place in the last decade. The new national defense policy is not simply a lesser version of the old policy. Rather, its security goals are very much more ambitious than during the Cold War and these ambitions drive budgets higher.
Evaluating the Post-Cold War Policy of the United States by Ambassador Jonathan Dean, Adviser on International Security Issues, Union of Concerned Scientists, presentation to the PDA symposium Ten Years After the
Wall:Trends in post-Cold War U.S. Security Policy held at the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences, 11 November 1999 (.pdf file).
Alleged 'Carrier Gap' is Out to Sea by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, PDA Briefing Memo #15, 30 April 1999. The April 1999 re-routing of aircraft carriers to support operations in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans inspired alarm about the effect of the move on America's military presence in the Pacific. However, the assertions of a serious gap in carrier coverage are groundless. Alarmism about redeployment misjudges the effect of the move on the military balance in Northeast Asia and betrays a disregard for the one feature of aircraft carriers -- their flexibility -- that is supposed to give them unique strategic value worthy of their prodigious cost.
Also available in print. $5.00
& The Readiness Crisis of the U.S. Air Force: A Review and Diagnosis by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, PDA Briefing Report #10, 22 April 1999 ( executive summary also available). By some accounts, the Air Force is suffering from a systemic readiness crisis brought on by a combination of post-Cold War defense retrenchment and increased operational activity. PDA's examination of the Air Force's recent readiness problems and of longer-term trends in readiness and Optempo finds little to support this view. Neither talk of crisis, nor crisis spending are warranted.
Also available in print. $18.00
Military Strategy Under Review by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, In Focus, Volume 4, Number 3, January 1999. Offers an overview of the recent directions in US strategic policy with a discussion of problems with that direction and recommendations for reform.
& Defense Sufficiency and Cooperation: A US Military Posture for the post-Cold War Era by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, Project on Defense Alternatives, 01 March 1998 ( executive summary also available. ) Presents a comprehensive and coherent US military posture option for a fifteen-year period beginning in 1998. While maintaining continuity of key aspects of US security strategy, it finds ample opportunity for further reductions in forces size and consequently in budget. Includes specification of force structure, equipment holdings, deployment, modernization plans, and defense budgets.
Also available in print. $15.00
Dueling with Uncertainty: the New Logic of American Military Planning by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, February 1998. Examines how the new planning concepts and methods adopted by the Pentagon since 1992 have led to military requirements disproportionate to real threats and have supported overweening ambitions for the application of military power. A version appeared in the March/April 1998 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as Inventing Threats.
Wanting Leadership: Public Opinion on Defense Spending by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, January 1998. Since 1982 significantly more Americans have supported cuts in defense spending than have supported increases. After 1994, when President Clinton called for "no further cuts in spending," the portion of Amercians supporting increases has risen somewhat. Surveys uphold the key role of leadership in the formation of public sentiments about defense-related issues finding that a solid majority of
the public would support relatively deep cuts in the Pentagon budget if the President and Congress proposed them.
Future Tense -- An Assessment of the Report of the National Defense Panel by Carl Conetta, 05 December 1997. Examines the NDP's general recommendation for reducing emphasis on armed forces quantity in exchange for quality enhancements. While this recommendation makes certain sense, the NDP's failure to specify cuts and its tendency to endorse new investments prematurely are problematic.
Also available in print. $5.00
From the QDR to the NDP -- A Summary of QDR Policy Issues Since May 1997 and the Likely Content of the NDP Report from Reviewing Defense, Global Beat Working Paper #32, the Center for War, Peace, and the News Media and the Project on Defense Alternatives, 14 November 1997.
America's New Deal With Europe: NATO Primacy and Double Expansion by Carl Conetta, October 1997. Analyzes US policy on European securtiy issues, including NATO expansion, burdensharing, the Balkans crisis, and relations with Russia and Germany. The American debate and public opinion regarding NATO enlargement is reviewed also.
Also available in print. $6.00
Backwards Into the Future: How the Quadrennial Defense Review Prepares America for the Wrong Century by Carl Conetta, June 1997. A commentary on and analysis of the 1997 QDR.
Also available in print. $5.00
US Defense Posture in Global Context: a framework for evaluating the Quadrennial Defense Review by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, The Project on Defense Alternatives, May 1997.
Also available in print. $5.00
Framework for Constructing a "New Era" Alternative to the Bottom-Up Review by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, February 1997. Based on the strategic objective of a core area coalition defense (i.e. Persian Gulf, Korea, and Europe) this memo takes the reader step by step through the logic of force sizing and structuring and modernization requirements to arrive at a robust and consistent alternative to the Bottom-Up Review force posture.
Post-Cold War US Military Expenditure in the Context of World Spending Trends by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight, PDA Briefing Memo #10, January 1997, ( executive summary available ). Based on a review of official data on world military spending, this study finds evidence that the strategic position of the US and its allies has improved immensely relative to the potential threat states. It also looks at regional trends and offers a perspective on the new and ambitious regional military strategy of the US.
Also available in print. $4.00
Nonoffensive Defense and the Transformation of US Defense Posture: Is Nonoffensive Defense Compatible with Global Power? by Carl Conetta, July 1995. Paper presented at the Nonoffensive Defence in a Global Prespective Seminar in Copenhagen, 04-05 February 1995. Discusses the application of nonoffensive defense concepts to a revision of US military policy and as a design principle for global system transformation. Regarding US power, it looks specifically at the potential for reorientation of power projection forces and military assistance programs. Originally published in NOD and Conversion, no. 33, July 1995.
Mismatch: The "Bottom Up Review" and America's Security Requirements in the New Era written testimony by Carl Conetta for the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, 10 March 1994. A critical appraisal of the type of U.S. post-Cold War military planning found in the B.U.R. which attempts to hedge against the uncertainty of the future and the prospect of a future peer competitor with a force structure so large as to preclude investment in security tools more suitable to the new era. As an alternative this testimony offers a sustainable force option for a core area coalition defense.
Build-Down: US Armed Forces Retrenchment in the Context of Modernization by Carl Conetta, Charles Knight and Alan Bloomgarden. PDA Briefing Memo #8, March 1994. A detailed examination of how current military modernization programs will interact with planned force reductions in shaping America's future armed forces. The report looks beyond superficial indicators of change to suggest the real, net effect of the current policy on the nation's military capability.
Also available in print. $8.00
Free Reign for the Sole Superpower? "The Boston Review," Vol.8 No.6, Dec/Jan 1993-94. Reports on the first Clinton Administration's Bottom Up Review (BUR) of defense policy and planning. This article remains a useful review of the limits of new thinking in post-Cold War U.S. national security planning and a starting point for evaluating subsequent defense reviews.
Rand's 'New Calculus' and the Impasse of US Defense Restructuring by Carl Conetta and Charles Knight , PDA Briefing Report #4, August 1993. Reviews a key planning study contributing to US post-Cold War strategic thinking and force planning, revealing critical shortcomings in the planning scenarios and simulations that continue to shape US defense policy. Individual sections address the "two war" standard of sufficiency, the persistence of "Central Front" logic, and assessments of strategic airlift and combat aircraft modernization requirements.
Also available in print. $8.00
|
|
|
