Read the most recent analysis from CSIS experts on defense-related issues.
On August 2, 2019, President Trump signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, raising the budget caps for FY 2020 and FY 2021 and suspending the debt ceiling. Seamus Daniels and Todd Harrison assess the impact of the budget deal on defense in their latest analysis.
The United States should focus on deterring further Iranian escalation, refraining from actions that threaten the regime’s survival, and providing a political “off ramp” for Iran to de-escalate.
The new budget deal adds $1.6 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years, a bill the current generation has no intention of paying and which it happily sends to its children and grandchildren.
For most of the nuclear age, enhanced strategic situational awareness has been viewed as beneficial to crisis stability. Today, existing and emerging technology offers the prospect of insight into adversary actions and activities with unprecedented speed and precision. But can there be too much of a good thing?
Esper will likely conduct a “night court” process for DoD, which means that every program will need to be justified in terms of the national defense strategy’s reorientation towards great power conflict.
U.S. desire to exit Afghanistan creates new dynamics for U.S.-Pakistan relations as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan prepares for his first official visit to the United States. This commentary evaluates the stakes and opportunities of this upcoming dialogue.
With Iran continuing to successfully deploy plausible deniability tactics, the series of sabotage attacks on tankers have served to further escalate tensions with the United States and its regional allies.
A significant number of Russia’s tactics fall in the space between routine statecraft and direct and open warfare, a space sometimes referred to as the gray zone.
On July 12, Turkey received the first elements of the S-400, a fourth-generation surface-to-air Russian missile system. Few recent weapon sales have been as geopolitically charged as this one. U.S. officials have threatened both military and economic sanctions should Turkey acquire the Russian system.
As part of its broad campaign against democracy, Russia’s information operations are targeting public faith and confidence in the independence and impartiality of our justice system.