Make it so.

New Atlanticist
Nov 1, 2024

NATO needs a defense industrial strategy that prioritizes being strong, smart, and together

By
Kristen Taylor, Luka Ignac

A recent two-day summit underscored the ways in which the credibility of allied deterrence hinges on robust defense industrial cooperation.

Defense Policy
Defense Technologies

Make it so.

New Atlanticist
Oct 30, 2024

In defense of Draghi’s defense idea: Three models for a centralized defense procurer for the EU

By
Thomas Goldstein

Only a European defense procurer can provide the institutional reform to overcome intra- and intergovernmental paralysis and invest at scale.

Defense Industry
Defense Policy

Make it so.

New Atlanticist
Oct 28, 2024

The US needs a stronger defense industrial base. Option contracts can help.

By
Michael Hogan

The US government would pay a premium on current orders, but it would then have the option to purchase a larger amount within a fixed timeframe.

Defense Industry
Defense Policy

The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security works to develop sustainable, nonpartisan strategies to address the most important security challenges facing the United States and the world.

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Content

Defense Industrialist

Feb 13, 2017

Make it so.

By James Hasik

Standing up a new military organization is hard institutional work, but work worth the effort over time. A proposal for a Space Force proposes short-term turmoil, but eventually better morale, stability, and focus after separation from the Air Force.

Defense Policy Space

Defense Industrialist

Jan 26, 2017

Keep that hiring freeze short

By James Hasik

Really reducing the Pentagon workforce will be a challenging task, because every office needs to be effectively searched for who’s not doing a great job, and who’s not doing a job that really needs to be done. It’s also an important job, because the layering-on of people and offices over the years has created a bureaucratic monster in which simple decisions can take months to effect. So here’s one bit of advice to the new administration, in the interests of efficient administration of defense. Make no small plans at the OMB. Get to work on that plan for eliminating the deadwood, the unimportant, and the sclerotic. Just don’t let this hiring freeze linger. Because until fresh hiring can resume, you’ll get none of the new talent you need.

Defense Policy Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jan 21, 2017

The high beta presidency

By Steven Grundman

What does the Trump Administration portend for defense policy? I hew to the simple refrain, “Anything could happen.” Or, as an investor put it to me, “Trump’s promises to be the ‘high-beta’ presidency.” Beta is the measure of a stock’s volatility against the market as a whole, though the analogue to molecular biology and the treatment of hypertension may be equally apt. Of one thing we do know for sure: Donald Trump is a master of the political narrative, and the story about public policy counts far more than those of us with a deductive train of mind might care to admit.

Afghanistan Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Jan 21, 2017

To get revolutionary in procurement, get radical on requirements

By James Hasik

In the US system, sketching out what the forces need is a task for military officers, upstream from the responsibilities of the under secretariat for AT&L. Ensuring they make sense and don’t excessively overlap amongst the services is supposed to be the job of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which impanels the vice chairman of the joint chiefs and the vice chiefs of the individual services. However, in its 20-year history, the JROC has rarely seen a requirement it didn’t usher through the process with minimal change. In the long run, radically rethinking requirements requires radically rethinking the process of setting requirements. And that’s where the big money is to be found.

Afghanistan Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Jan 12, 2017

The tether of fuel—a brief counterpoint

By David Foster

Unless troops live off the land again, energy efficiency can only yield so much.

Conflict Defense Policy

Defense Industrialist

Jan 9, 2017

The Pentagon needs real human capital gurus

By James Hasik

Nine recommendations to the Trump Administration on the people of Defense I once wrote that the business of defense under President Donald J. Trump could start with “General, you’re fired.” The president-elect has noted that the US military has been attaining less-than-satisfying results in its campaigns since the end of the Cold War, and he expects that to change. The US has […]

Defense Policy Security & Defense

Report

Dec 6, 2016

Evaluating Western Sanctions on Russia

By Sergey Aleksashenko

It has been more than two years since the European Union (EU) and the United States imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. For some of the measures that is time enough to evaluate effectiveness. “The sanctions’ greatest achievement is that they have been an important demonstration of transatlantic unity. Still, there […]

Conflict Defense Policy

Defense Industrialist

Nov 28, 2016

Advice to the Trump Administration on the evolution of war

By James Hasik

Technological developments and actual financial constraints demand top-to-bottom rethinking of the business of defense. As I wrote earlier this month, Donald Trump’s unpredicted electoral victory has brought the possibility for real change in the enterprise of national security. To borrow Paul Ryan’s phrase, thoroughly rethinking the business of defense could create a military that moves closer to […]

China Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Nov 15, 2016

Rethinking the business of defense

By James Hasik

Advice to the Trump Administration on bringing discipline to the defense enterprise At the conclusion of an unconventional but brilliant campaign, Donald Trump has effected, in terms he might appreciate, a hostile takeover of the executive branch of the United States federal government. In that campaign, he repeatedly promised to move swiftly towards administrative change, perhaps in a hundred-day campaign. […]

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Defense Industrialist

Nov 11, 2016

Defense advice For President-elect Trump

By Steven Grundman

Focus on national productivity growth to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio. The US presidential election that just ended was driven by identity politics—affinity by race, class, gender, etc.— rather than ideological competition or policy differences. As a result, resolution of the political contest will not unto itself unlock the calcified debate over fiscal policy that has […]

Defense Policy Economy & Business
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Experts

Fellow

Owen J. Daniels

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Tom Mancinelli

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Alexander B. Gray

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Policy Defense Technologies

Fellow

Caroline Zier

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Policy Security & Defense

Fellow

Shawn Creamer

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Indo-Pacific Security Initiative

Security & Defense East Asia

Fellow

Marvin J. Park

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Defense Policy
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