To parse the rhetoric from the facts, and to analyze what the QDR will mean for US defense in the future, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright, USMC (Ret.) will be joined by Atlantic Council experts Barry Pavel, Mathew Burrows, and Steven Grundman. The event will be moderated by Defense News Editor Vago Muradian. Join us on March 5, 2014 from 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) comes at a time of turbulence and uncertainty for the US national security community, with, among other factors, the draw down in Afghanistan (and the follow-on commitment still in flux), continued defense austerity, and emerging contests over territorial delineations in the Asia-Pacific region. The rapidly developing crisis in Ukraine adds further uncertainty to the strategic landscape. With this as a backdrop, what will this mean for how the United States prioritizes and plans for defense over the next four years? Will the United States have to withdraw further from the Middle East and postpone the announced “pivot to Asia” in order to respond to a new geostrategic landscape in the wake of the Ukraine crisis?