In Brief: Assessing DOD's New Strategic Guidance

Abstract

On January 5, 2012, President Obama announced new defense strategic guidance entitled "Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense." This new guidance is significant because it is explicitly intended to reshape future Department of Defense (DoD) priorities, activities, and budget requests for the next decade. While the guidance is intended to steer DoD decision-making as it reduces defense spending by about $487 billion over the next 10 years to meet the initial budget caps set in the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011, it does not account for the possibility of sequestration -- further significant, across-the-board cuts that could be required pursuant to implementation of the BCA. Defense officials have stated that, were they directed to find an additional $500 billion in cuts, this guidance would not apply, and DoD would have to shed "missions and commitments and capabilities that we believe are necessary to protect core U.S. national security interests." This CRS report highlights and analyzes key strategic-level issues raised by the new guidance. The report will not be updated.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 12, 2012
Accession Number
ADA584288

Entities

People

  • Catherine Dale
  • Pat Towell

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Guidance
  • Homeland Defense
  • Homeland Security
  • House Of Representatives
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • Information Operations
  • International Security
  • Law
  • Military Operations
  • National Security
  • Security
  • United States
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Economics
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.