Category: Content Series

Best-Value is a No-Brainer, Dual-Sourcing Not So Much.

By James Hasik

Jacques Gansler’s editorial in the NYT skirts the challenges of competing every contract Jacques Gansler’s editorial in yesterday’s New York Times appropriately laments the Pentagon’s drift away from real competition in contracting, and prescribes two sequential solutions: initial competition on price and quality, but subsequent re-competition on price. In supply chain management, the former is called best-value contracting, the latter dual-sourcing. Both […]

Does the Defense Budget Ignore the Defense Industrial Base?

By James Hasik

Not hardly. Jet engines are just its most promising story Monday’s announcement of the 2015 US Defense Budget request made exactly one explicit mention of the defense industrial base. One billion dollars is to be invested, Secretary Hagel said, towards developing A promising next-generation jet engine technology, which we expect to produce sizable cost-savings through reduced fuel […]

Strengthening the US-Japan Alliance

On February 26, 2014, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security held a not-for-attribution roundtable briefing on the US-Japan alliance and what it portends for US extended deterrence in Asia. The briefing featured Mira Rapp-Hooper, Stanton nuclear security fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and was presided over by project co-chair Richard […]

What We’re Reading: February 25

By Global Business

TTIP Action aggregates the latest news and best analysis from across the United States and European Union on the ongoing negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

How the Saudi Sale will Sustain GDLS in North America

By James Hasik

$10 billion of Canadian armored vehicles should alleviate American concerns about the industrial base The huge news in the industry last week was huge contract that General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) Canada won in Saudi Arabia. Only governmental announcements and filings in Canada and the US have revealed the identity of that buyer, as the terms of […]

Brummer Speaks at EU Financial Services Summit

By Chris Brummer

Global Business and Economics Program C. Boyden Grey Fellow Chris Brummer served as a keynote speaker for the European Financial Services Conference, a gathering of more than 400 delegates at the ING Auditorium in Brussels hosted by Assonime, Barclays, and Kreab Gavin Anderson.

Andrés Bello and Protests: What this Means for Venezuela’s Future

By Victor Salcedo

Andrés Bello, eighteenth century Venezuelan philosopher and Simón Bolívar’s teacher, said that “only the unity of the people and the solidarity of its leaders guarantee the greatness of nations.” This is a quote that should be remembered in today’s Venezuela, where the country is divided and on the slow, painful path of irreversible implosion without […]

UK, EU, and US Regulators and Diplomats Discuss Transatlantic Regulatory Reforms and TTIP

Financial services should be included in the ongoing Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the United States and the European Union (EU), but a major obstacle remains the opposition of the US Treasury, a group of British and other European financial experts asserted at a recent London event. The gathering, cosponsored by the […]

Better Buying Power at Work: Technical Data for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle

By James Hasik

The economics of intellectual property rights reveals the managerial challenge of military procurement. In promulgating his ‘Better Buying Power’ (BBP) initiative back in September 2010, Ashton Carter directed the Pentagon’s program managers to routinely consider purchasing technical data packages (TDPs) and associated design licenses to new weapon systems. With TDPs in their possession, program managers hold the option for […]