Read the most recent analysis from CSIS experts on defense-related issues.
The Trump administration is expected to release its FY 2021 defense budget request on February 10, 2020, the final budget submitted in the BCA era. In this brief, experts from the CSIS International Security Program outline major issues to watch in the FY 2021 defense budget.
The Trump administration characterized its FY 2020 defense budget request as a “masterpiece.” The CSIS Defense Budget Analysis program provides its assessment of the budget, its implications for future defense spending, and FY 2020 appropriations.
In this brief, the authors discuss a strategy that they have labeled the Minimal Exposure Strategy. The strategy’s core premise is that the United States is largely secure from military threats due to continental U.S. geography and the deterrent quality of its nuclear and other strategic capabilities.
In this brief, the authors explore a defense approach they have labeled the Progressive Values Strategy. The strategy is grounded in a view that the military instrument is not well suited to meeting many of the security challenges facing the United States. It focuses on achieving a level of military sufficiency that deters adventurism by others—as well as itself.
In this brief, the authors discuss a strategy they have labeled the Innovation Superiority Strategy. The strategy is guided by a focus on achieving enduring American military advantage in the U.S.-China security competition.
This CSIS Brief is the first in a series that explores the contours and implications of strategies that might reduce the U.S. military’s mission space through greater constraints on its ends, ways, or means.
Annually, CSIS senior adviser Mark Cancian publishes a report on U.S. military forces—their composition, new initiatives, long-term trends, and challenges as well as the strategic and budget context that shapes their structure. This report, a compilation of previously published white papers, takes a deep look at each of the military services, special operations forces, DOD…
Military forces consist not just of the services, but also special operations forces, civilians, contractors, and non-DOD agencies. In his final white paper in a series on U.S. forces, CSIS’s Mark Cancian analyzes recent changes to these other national security elements.
This year, CSIS will be analyzing the acquisition system through a series of topics papers. The first paper in our 2019 report series presents analysis of the topline DoD contracting trends, focusing on the defense acquisition system’s response to the 2018 NDS and new administration priorities.
Squeezed between the demands of great power conflict and day-to-day operations, the Air Force moves to a high-low mix of capabilities. In the fifth white paper in a series on U.S. forces, CSIS’s Mark Cancian analyzes the Air Force’s modernization and force structure plans.