Budgeting for defense in the United States

Smith wrote instructively about the unaffordability and inadequacy of defense spending in the U.K. and the difficult challenges facing the Strategic Defense Review committee. Some of the challenges facing the U.S. resemble those of the U.K., others are of the same ilk but differ in their intensity, still others are unique. This article describes the current state of budgeting for defense in the U.S., focusing on key changes in the last few decades. Such changes are organized into three categories, (a) the strategic, political, and fiscal context for defense budgeting, (b) the allocation to defense and the distribution within that budget, and (c) core processes in both the Pentagon and in Congress. The article ends with some thoughts about the consequences of those changes, considering the needs of the military to effectively implement strategy and the recommendations of the Congressional Committee on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform.