A Realistic Strategy for America’s Defense
A Progressive Quadrennial Defense Review
In order to defend the United States in an age of terrorists, extreme regimes, and weak and failing states, the Department of Defense must fundamentally overhaul its military doctrine and priorities. The all-volunteer Army is reaching its breaking point, with U.S. ground forces stretched as never before and equipment shortages plaguing the military. Furthermore, U.S. conventional and nuclear weapons systems are not matched to the threats our country faces.
The Center for American Progress presents its own Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) which offers realistic policies that protect the homeland, invest in military personnel, and prevent the outbreak of conflicts. It provides for forces that are flexible enough to simultaneously defend the homeland, fight a regional conflict, engage in two post-conflict stabilization and peacekeeping missions, and deter conflicts in three regions, a strategy we refer to as “1-1-2-3.” This strategy provides the military with the proper weapons, technology, manpower, and other resources it needs to both address traditional threats and to combat the asymmetric threats of the 21st century.
Video & Transcript
Video:
• Introduction: John Podesta
• Bob Boorstin
• Lawrence Korb
• Michele Flournoy
• Panel Q & A
• Transcript: Read full text (PDF)
Read also: Restoring American Military Power, by Lawrence J. Korb, Caroline P. Wadhams, and Andrew J. Grotto
Thomas Donnelly, Resident Fellow, Defense and Security Policy, American Enterprise Institute
Michele A. Flournoy, Senior Adviser, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Moderated by:
Robert O. Boorstin, Senior Vice President for National Security, Center for American Progress
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Program: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Center for American Progress
1333 H Street, NW 10th Floor
Washington D.C. 20005
Biographies
Michele A. Flournoy is Senior Adviser in the CSIS International Security Program, where she works on a broad range of defense policy and international security issues. She has previously worked as a distinguished research Professor at the National Defense University, where she founded and led the university’s Quadrennial Defense Review working group. Before that, she was dual-hatted as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for strategy and threat reduction, and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy. In this capacity, she oversaw three policy offices in the Office of the Secretary of Defense: Strategy; Requirements, Plans, and Counterproliferation; and Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasian Affairs. Ms. Flournoy was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1996 and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 1998. She holds degrees from Harvard and Oxford.
Lawrence J. Korb is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Senior Advisor to the Center for Defense Information. Prior to joining the Center, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From July 1998 to October 2002, he was Council Vice President, Director of Studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair. Prior to joining the Council, Mr. Korb served as Director of the Center for Public Policy Education and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and Vice President of Corporate Operations at the Raytheon Company. Mr. Korb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics) from 1981 through 1985. In that position, he administered about 70 percent of the Defense budget. For his service in that position, he was awarded the Department of Defense’s medal for Distinguished Public Service. Mr. Korb served on active duty for four years as Naval Flight Officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain.
Robert O. Boorstin is the Senior Vice President for National Security at the Center for American Progress. Boorstin brings to American Progress more than twenty years experience in national security, political communications, research and journalism. For over seven years with the Clinton Administration, he worked as the President’s National Security Speechwriter; Communications and Foreign Policy Adviser to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; and Adviser on the Developing World to Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Earlier in his career, Boorstin was a reporter for The New York Times. He received his B.A. from Harvard College in 1981 and his M. Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University in 1983.