Read the Report – Center for a New American Security Technology and National Security Program recommends the Department of Defense invest more in open source software and embrace it as a critical element of its efforts to maintain military technical superiority. The report is authored by CNAS Senior Fellow Ben FitzGerald, Adjunct Senior Fellow Dr. Peter Levin, and Researcher Jacqueline Parziale.
Assessing Defense Reform Series — Improving the efficiency, oversight, and professionalism of the security cooperation enterprise will help prove to Americans that these investments are worth the price. Still, security cooperation reform pursued by the Senate Armed Services Committee should account for the administration’s concerns, echoed by Senate appropriators, that the balance between DoD and DoS authority over security assistance be righted, given Department of State’s role as the lead for U.S. foreign policy.
Assessing Defense Reform Series — Because the number of Guard/reserve GO/FOs has been growing while the number of Guard/reserve troops has been constant, there would appear to be some opportunity for reductions. However, a 25 percent cut would be large and disruptive. Further, the loss of reserve three-star positions will likely be seen as a serious loss of influence in the reserve community.
Assessing Defense Reform Series — The House and the Senate National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bills have several provisions seeking to strengthen the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This paper examines the proposals to give the chairman some operational authorities. The concern is that global threats like ISIS or peer competitors like Russia and China cross regions and functions and, therefore, involve several COCOMs.
Critical Questions – Five years after the Budget Control Act became law, CSIS’s Todd Harrison looks…
This report examines the interests that a close U.S.-Egyptian bilateral relationship serves and also highlights the consequences of a different kind of relationship. No policy is without costs or drawbacks, but U.S. policymakers need to understand both the likely results of maintaining close ties with Egypt and the likely results of alternatives.
Read the report — In Arming for Deterrence, Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff and Maciej Olex-Szczytowski examine the threat posed by a resurgent Russia before considering NATO’s strategy and posture, focusing particularly on its northeast region: Poland and the Baltic states. The report then considers the implications for Poland and recommends how Poland’s defense apparatus and posture should be reformed to take account of the new reality: That NATO now faces a greater threat of war in its eastern regions than at any time since the end of the Cold War.
In a seminal report, AEI’s Marilyn Ware Center argues for a three-theater force-sizing construct to reflect the actual demands placed upon the U.S. military.
The CNAS Extending American Power (EAP) Project released its final report, which is the culmination of the year-long EAP series co-chaired by Dr. Robert Kagan and the Hon. James P. Rubin.
Read the report — In this issue brief, Steven Horrell, Magnus Nordenman, and Walter Slocombe…