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Keep Pentagon Cuts in Perspective: What the administration proposes is hardly dramatic. (printable .pdf version) PDA Briefing Memo #53, 5 January 2012. The roll back in Pentagon budget plans will modestly reduce spending from its recent peak, while retaining most of the post-1998 surge in the defense budget.

Going for Broke: The Budgetary Consequences of Current US Defense Strategy. (printable .pdf version) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Memo #52, 25 October 2011. The Pentagon's adoption of more ambitious goals, strategy, and missions after the Cold War has led to today's unsustainable defense budgets. Two tables.

• companion piece: The Pentagon's New Mission Set: A Sustainable Choice? (printable .pdf version) by Carl Conetta. An updated and expanded excerpt from the Report of the Task Force on a Unified Security Budget (USB) for the United States, August 2011.

Strategic Adjustment to Sustain the Force: A survey of current proposals. (printable .pdf version) by Charles Knight, PDA Briefing Memo #51, 25 October 2011. A survey of five proposals by independent experts for adjusting US global strategy to new fiscal realities in ways that enhance security while avoiding 'hollowing' of the forces.

Pentagon Cuts in Context: No reason for "doomsday" hysteria. (printable .pdf version) by Carl Conetta. PDA Briefing Memo #50, 11 October 2011. Analyzes the potential impact of the Budget Control Act on the defense budget under different scenarios and compares likely future budget levels to past ones. Two tables.

Pentagon Review Must Aim for More than Modest Cuts in Defense Spending. (printable .pdf version) PDA Briefing Memo #49, 25 April 2011. The President's proposal to trim DoD's future budget plans by 6.5% or $400 billion over 12 years is a modest step. The forthcoming Pentagon review must aim higher in order to achieve sustainability. Two charts summarize past and planned Pentagon budgets.

Continuing Resolution: Congress Goes Easy on DoD. (printable .pdf version) PDA Briefing Memo #48, 17 March 2011. Examines House and Senate allocation of budget cuts to defense and non-defense accounts for 2011 fiscal year.

The Pentagon and Deficit Reduction: FY-2012 Budget Retains Exceptional Level of Defense Spending. (.html version) (printable .pdf version) PDA Briefing Memo #47, 1 March 2011. Reviews military spending plans for 2012-2016. 10 tables and charts.

Pentagon Resists Deficit Reduction. (printable .pdf version) PDA Briefing Memo #46, 30 January 2011. Examines Defense Secretary Gates' offer to cut $78 billion from defense plans over five years. Two tables compare different spending scenarios.

Experts Letter on Defense Spending to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. (.html version) (printable .pdf version)18 November 2010. Joint declaration by 48 top scholars and practitioners of national security policy: "We can achieve safe savings in defense if we are willing to rethink how we produce military power and how, why, and where we put it to use."

Debt, Deficits, and Defense: A Way Forward. Report of the Sustainable Defense Task Force. 11 June 2010. The report presents options for reducing DoD’s budget -- in sum saving nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. (Executive Summary).

• C-SPAN video of the report release briefing hosted by Rep. Barney Frank, U.S. Capitol Visitors Center, 11 June 2010..

An Undisciplined Defense:  Understanding the $2 Trillion Surge in US Defense Spending (full text .pdf file with charts and appendices) (executive summary) by Carl Conetta, PDA Briefing Report #20, 18 January 2010. Analyzes the steep rise in defense spending since 1998. 21 charts and tables.

• Trillions to Burn: A Quick Guide to the Surge in Pentagon Spending. Short, graphic summary of the report with nine charts.
• Get Serious About DoD Reform by C. Conetta and C. Knight. Op-ed in Defense News.

Military Intervention and Common Sense: Focus on Land Forces (Paperback and Kindle editions) (Mobipocket edition) by Lutz Unterseher with C. Knight and C. Conetta, June 2009. Ground force options for stability operations.

• Helicopters in America’s post-9/11 wars by Carl Conetta, from Military Intervention and Common Sense: Focus on Land Forces, Chapter 6.

Forceful Engagement: Rethinking the Role of Military Power in US Global Policy (full text .pdf with graphics) (full text .html, no graphics) (exec. summary .html), Dec 2008. The US has been using its armed forces beyond the limit of their utility.

Cul de Sac: 9/11 and the Paradox of American Power (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf), PDA Research Monograph #13, 05 February 2008. Post-Cold War US security policy evinces a disturbing paradox: it has been delivering less and less security at ever increasing cost.

A Prisoner to Primacy (full text .html) (printable full text .pdf), PDA Briefing Memo #43, 05 February 2008. The US security policy debate remains paralyzed by 9/11 and mesmerized by military primacy. Progress depends on rethinking the role of force.

Dissuading China and Fighting the 'Long War', World Policy Journal. The 2006 US Defense Review advanced two new strategic vectors for the US armed forces - one targets a putative "global Islamic insurgency"; the other puts America on a collison course with China.