The History and Politics of Defense Reviews

Abstract

The 1993 Bottom-Up Review starts with this challenge: "Now that the Cold War is over, the questions we face in the Department of Defense are: How do we structure the armed forces of the United States for the future? How much defense is enough in the postCold War era?" Finding a satisfactory answer to these deceptively simple questions not only motivated the Bottom-Up Review but has arguably animated defense strategy for the past quarter century. Indeed, over that period, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has labored under successive administrations to not only a write a strategy but build a process that prioritizes threats; aligns resources accordingly; and seamlessly links ends, ways, and means together into a compelling narrative. And yet, few say they believe that any of the dozen major defense reviews over the past quarter century produced a satisfactory answer to this task.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2018
Accession Number
AD1086203

Entities

People

  • Raphael S. Cohen

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

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  • International Organizations
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  • Systems Analysis and Design