Decisions Deferred: Balancing Risks for Today and Tomorrow
Decisions Deferred: Balancing Risks for Today and Tomorrow – Center for a New American Security Commentary by LTG David W. Barno (USA Ret.) and Dr. Nora Bensahel.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s rollout last week of the Strategic Choices and Management Review (SCMR) left many questions unanswered about the future of U.S. defense. Although it was not designed to make critical defense decisions, the SCMR was widely expected to help set the terms of the Congressionally-mandated 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Instead, it simply generated a menu of options linked to various levels of budget cuts, while reaching few conclusions. The SCMR offered little guidance beyond further detailing the pain of sequestration-level budget cuts. But hidden within the SCMR’s complex layers of options lies the key question that the QDR will need to answer: Should DOD keep investing heavily in today’s force, or take greater risk now while shifting investment toward tomorrow? …
