Neoliberal & Neoconservative Security Policy

Views, Criticism, Alternatives

September 2007
(Updated 02 February 2008)




Neoliberal & Neoconservative Views

America and the Use of Force: Sources of Legitimacy
Ivo Daalder and Robert Kagan. Stanley Foundation, June 2007 (.pdf file)

The Case for Larger Ground Forces
Frederick Kagan and Michael O'Hanlon. Stanley Foundation, April 2007 (.pdf file)

Enduring U.S. Interests in Iraq: The Three No’s
Michèle Flournoy and Shawn Brimley. Center for a New American Security, March 2007 (.pdf file)

A Winning Strategy: This Time, Democrats Can Win the National Security Debate with Positive Ideas for Protecting America
Will Marshall. Blueprint Magazine, 18 October 2006.

Fighting Smarter: A Five-Part Progressive Plan to Defend Liberal Democracy
Will Marshall and Jeremy Rosner. Blueprint Magazine, 17 May 2006.

A Duty to Prevent
Anne-Marie Slaughter and Lee Feinstein. United Nations Foundation, 15 August 2005 (.pdf file).

The Case for 'Integration'
Richard N. Haass. The National Interest, 01 September 2005.

An Argument for a New Liberalism - A Fighting Faith
Peter Beinart. The New Republic, 02 December 2004.

Global Transaction Strategy
Thomas P.M. Barnett and Henry H. Gaffney, Jr. Free Republic, 05 September 2004.

The Pentagon's New Map
Thomas P.M. Barnett. April 2004.

In Search of An American Grand Strategy For the Middle East
Kurt M. Campbell, ed; Joseph S. Nye, Jr. and Brent Scowcroft, chairs. Aspen Strategy Group, 2004 (.pdf file).

American Empire, Not 'If' but 'What Kind'
Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay. The New York Times, 10 May 2003. Posted on The Brookings Institution website.

American Imperialism? No Need to Run Away From Label
Max Boot. USA Today, 05 May 2003.

What's Next? Preserving American Primacy, Institutionalizing Unipolarity
Thomas Donnelly. American Enterprise Institute, May 2003.

An Empire, If You Can Keep It
Stephen Peter Rosen. The National Interest, Spring 2003.

The Underpinnings of the Bush Doctrine
Thomas Donnelly. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 01 February 2003.

The American Empire: The Burden
Michael Ignatieff. The New York Times, 05 January 2003.

Power and Weakness
Robert Kagan. Policy Review, June 2002. Posted on the Mt. Holyoke College website

The Long War of the 21st Century
R. James Woolsey. Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, 2002 (.pdf file).

The Real New World Order: The American and Islamic Challenge
Charles Krauthammer. The Weekly Standard, 12 November 2001.

Stability, America's Enemy
Ralph Peters. Parameters, Winter 2001-02.

Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century
Donald Kagan, Gary Schmitt and Thomas Donnelly. Project for the New American Century, September 2000 (.pdf file).

War and Foreign Policy, American-Style
Zbigniew K. Brzezinski. Journal of Democracy, Vol. 11:1, 2000. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website.

Introduction: National Interest and Global Responsibility
William Kristol and Robert Kagan. Sample chapter from the book Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy, 2000.

The Lonely Superpower
Samuel P. Huntington. Foreign Affairs, March/April 1999. Posted on the St. Martin's University website.

U.S. Security Policy: Challenges For The 21st Century
Joseph S. Nye, Jr. U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda, July 1998.

Benevolent Empire
Robert Kagan. Foreign Policy, Summer 1998. Posted on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website.

Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy
William Kristol and Robert Kagan. Foreign Affairs, July/August 1996. Posted on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website.

A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, June 1996.

The Coming Anarchy
Robert D. Kaplan. Atlantic Monthly, February 1996. Posted on the Global Policy Forum website.


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Critical Perspectives

Betting on the Wrong Donkey
Christopher A. Preble. The National Interest, 01 November 2007.

From Military Keynesianism to Global-Neoliberal Militarism
James M. Cypher. Monthly Review, June 2007.

Hegemonic Delusions: Power, Liberal Imperialism, and the Bush Doctrine
Jeffrey W. Taliaferro. Fletcher Forum, Summer 2007 (.pdf file).

Manifest Destiny: A New Direction for America
William Pfaff. The New York Review of Books, 15 February 2007.

The World After Bush
Michael Lind. New American Foundation Prospect, November 2006.

America Transforms the Middle East, But Not as Envisioned
James Carroll. The Boston Globe, 31 July 2006.

The Struggle for the System: The Long War and Sources of Legitimacy
Ken Fraser. Presented to the Second Oceanic Conference on International Studies, University of Melbourne, 05-07 July 2006 (.pdf file).

We Are the World
David Rieff. The Nation, 03 July 2006.

A Critique of the Bush Administration's National Security Strategy
Lawrence Korb and Caroline Wadhams. The Stanley Foundation, June 2006 (.pdf file).

Democrats' Defense Budget Ideas as Ruinous as Republicans'
Winslow Wheeler. The Forward, 18 May 2006. Posted on the Center for Defense Information website.

Wolfish Wilsonians: Existential Dilemmas of the Liberal Internationalists
Anatol Lieven. Orbis, April 2006.

When Terrorists Go Mainstream
Monica Duffy Toft. The Boston Globe, 27 January 2006.

The Bad: A Review of Thomas P.M. Barnett's New Map
William S. Lind. On War #148, Defense and the National Interest, 20 January 2006.

The War of the Liberals
Stephen Holmes. The Nation, 14 November 2005.

New Boys in Town: The Neocon Revolution and American Militarism
Andrew J. Bacevich. Excerpt from the book The New American Militarism, How Americans Are Seduced by War. Posted on TomDispatch.com on 22 April 2005.

Review of The Pentagon's New Map by Thomas P. M. Barnett
Chet Richards. Defense and the National Interest, 05 March 2005.

Threat Inflation and the Failure of the Marketplace of Ideas
Chaim Kaufmann. International Security, Summer 2004 (.pdf file).

A Tragedy of Errors
Michael Lind. The Nation, 23 February 2004.

The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy
Mel Goodman. Foreign Policy in Focus, February 2004 (.pdf file).

Benevolent Global Hegemony: William Kristol and the Politics of American Empire
Gary Dorrien. Logos, 2004.

Neoliberal Geopolitics
Susan Roberts, Anna Secor, and Matthew Sparke. Antipode, November 2003 (.pdf file).

The Ideology of American Empire
Claes G. Ryn. Foreign Policy Research Institute, Summer 2003. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Essential Elements Missing in the National Security Strategy of 2002
Charles Knight. Project on Defense Alternatives, 09 October 2002.

Bush's Grand Strategy
Andrew J. Bacevich. The American Conservative, 29 September 2002. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Toward Universal Empire: The Dangerous Quest for Absolute Security
David C. Hendrickson. World Policy Journal, Fall 2002 (.pdf file).

Clinton's World: Purpose, Policy and Weltanschauung
Josef Joffe. The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2001. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

The Politics of Hegemony: The United States and Iran
James A. Bill. Middle East Policy, September 2001 (.pdf file).

The Question of Hegemony
William Pfaff. Foreign Affairs, January/February 2001.

Fool's Errands: America's Recent Encounters with Nation Building
Gary Dempsey. Mediterranean Quarterly, Vol. 12:1, 2001. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website.

Globalization and Governance
Kenneth N. Waltz. PS Online, December 1999. Posted on the Mt. Holyoke College website.

Policing Utopia: The Military Imperatives of Globalization
Andrew J. Bacevich. The National Interest, Summer 1999. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website.

Why Export Democracy?: The 'Hidden Grand Strategy' of American Foreign Policy
G. John Ikenberry. The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1999. Posted on the Mt. Holyoke College website.


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Strategic Options

The Remaking of a Unipolar World
Robert Jervis. The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2006. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Strategy, Security and War in Iraq: The United States and the Gulf in the 21st Century
James A. Russell. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, July 2005 (.pdf file).

In the National Interest: A New Grand Strategy for American Foreign Policy
Stephen M. Walt. Boston Review, February/March 2005.

Globalization, Power and Security
Sean Kay. Security Dialogue, March 2004. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

The New Geopolitics
Michael Klare. Monthly Review, July/August 2003.

Bush's Grand Strategy
Andrew J. Bacevich. The American Conservative, 29 September 2002. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Offshore Balancing Revisited
Christopher Layne. The Washington Quarterly, Spring 2002. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

American Primacy: Its Prospects and Pitfalls
Stephen M. Walt. Naval War College Review, Spring 2002. Posted on the author's website at Harvard University (.pdf file).

Competing Visions of U.S. Grand Strategy
Barry R. Posen and Andrew L. Ross. International Security, Winter 1996-97. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).


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Against Empire

Beyond American Hegemony
Michael Lind. The National Interest, May/June 2007.

What's at Stake in the American Empire Debate
Daniel H. Nexon and Thomas Wright. American Political Science Review, May 2007 (.pdf file).

Militarism and U.S. Trade Policy
David Ranney. Foreign Policy in Focus, December 2006 (.pdf file).

Too Late for Empire
Jonathan Schell. The Nation, 14 August 2006.

The Mirage of Empire
John Gray. New York Review of Books, 12 January 2006.

Imperial Reach
Michael Klare, The Nation, 25 April 2005.

The Hegemonist Challenge to Globalism
Jerry Harris. CyRev, Winter 2004 (.pdf file).

In Search of Monsters to Destroy: American Empire in the New Millenium
Juan A. Alsace. Parameters, Autumn 2003. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Military Globalism
William Greider. The Nation, 31 March 2003.

The Army’s Empire Skeptics
Jason Vest. The Nation, 03 March 2003.

The Empire Strikes Out: The 'New Imperialism' and its Fatal Flaws
Ivan Eland. CATO Institute, 26 November 2002.

America's Imperial Ambition
G. John Ikenberry. Foreign Affairs, September/October 2002 (.pdf file).


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Alternative Approaches To U.S. Security

For Liberal Internationalism
Michael Lind. The Nation, 2 July 2007

Just Security: An Alternative Foreign Policy Framework
John Feffer et al. Foreign Policy in Focus, June 2007 (.pdf file).

Report of the Task Force on a Unified Security Budget for the United States, 2008
Foreign Policy in Focus and the Center for Defense Information, April 2007. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Liberating Ourselves
Paul W. Schroeder. The American Conservative, 9 October 2006.

The End of Civilization
James Carroll. The Boston Globe, 11 September 2006.

Terrorism or All-Hazards? Broadening Homeland Security
Anita Dancs. Security Policy Working Group, September 2006 (.pdf file).

The Impossible Mandate? Military Preparedness, the Responsibility to Protect and Modern Peace Operations
Victoria K. Holt and Tobias C. Berkman. The Stimson Center, September 2006 (.pdf file).

National Security Budgets To Make America Safer
Cindy Williams. Security Policy Working Group, September 2006 (.pdf file).

Fighting The 'Good Fight': An Alternatives to Current Democratic Proposals for a New National Security Strategy
William D. Hartung. Security Policy Working Group, August 2006 (.pdf file).

Post-Combat Stabilization and Reconstruction: The Lessons for U.S. Government Organization and National Security Resource Planning
Gordon Adams. The Stimson Center, July 2006. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

A Balanced Foreign Policy
Daryl Press and Benjamin Valentino. Tobin Project Working Paper. Prepared for the National Security Working Group, 24 June 2006 (.pdf file).

The Korb Report: A Realistic Defense for America
Lawrence Korb. Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, 22 September 2005. Posted on the Center for Defense Information website (.pdf file).

Fear Vs. Hope: America and Global Security
Gordon Adams. Foreign Service Journal, June 2005. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

An Alternative to Empire
John Feffer and Miriam Pemberton. AlterNet, 25 June 2003.

Reforging the Sword: Forces for a 21st Century Security Strategy
Col. Daniel Smith, Marcus Corbin and Christopher Hellman. Center for Defense Information, September 2001 (.pdf file).

Holding the Line: U.S. Defense Strategy
Cindy Williams. Foreign Policy in Focus, May 2001 (.pdf file).


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Role Of Force in U.S. Policy

Humanitarian Action Can Mask an Imperial Agenda.
Anatol Lieven. The Financial Times, 21 August 2007.

Who Intervenes and Why it Matters: The Problem of Agency in Humanitarian Intervention
Eric A. Heinze. Human Rights & Human Welfare Working Papers, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, August 2007 (.pdf file).

Coercive Diplomacy: Scope and Limits in the Contemporary World
Bruce Jentleson. Stanley Foundation, December 2006 (.pdf file).

The Use of Force and Contemporary Security Threats: Old Medicine for New Ills?
Allen S. Weiner. Stanford Law Review, November 2006 (.pdf file).

Michael Walzer on Just War Theory's "Critical Edge": More Like a Spoon Than a Knife
Laurie Calhoun. The Independent Review, Winter 2005 (.pdf file).

High Technology Military Dominance: The Opiate of Modern Empire
Brad Allenby. Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University, November 2005.

The False Friends of the American Military: The Cowboy Culture
David Rieff. The New Republic, 10 October 2005.

For the Record: All U.S. Forces' Responses to Situations, 1970-2003.
W. Eugene Cobble, HH Gaffney, and Dmitry Gorenburg. Center for Naval Analysis, May 2005 (.pdf file).

The Normalization of War
Andrew J. Bacevich. Excerpt from the book The New American Militarism, How Americans Are Seduced by War. Posted on TomDispatch.com on 20 April 2005.

Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony
Barry R. Posen. International Security, Summer 2003. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

The United States: The Empire of Force or the Force of Empire.
Pierre Hassner. Institute for Security Studies, European Union, September 2002 (.pdf file).

Empty Promises: Why the Bush Administration's Half-Hearted Attempts at Defense Reform Have Failed
David Isenberg and Ivan Eland. CATO Institute, 11 June 2002 (.pdf file).

What Justifies Military Intervention?
Charles Knight. Project on Defense Alternatives, 27 September 2001.

The Evolving Clinton Doctrine on the Use of Force
Charles A. Stevenson. Armed Forces & Society, Summer 1996.


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Interrogating the War on Terrorism

Fractured Fairy Tale: The War on Terror and the Emperor's New Clothes
Ian S. Lustick. Homeland Security Affairs, February 2007 (.pdf file).

Suicide Terrorism and Democracy: What We’ve Learned Since 9/11
Robert A. Pape. CATO Institute, November 2006. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Is There Still a Terrorist Threat?: The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy
John Mueller. Foreign Affairs, September/October 2006.

Is The War On Terror 'Worth It'?
David Gold. Security Policy Working Group, September 2006 (.pdf file).

What is the "War on Terror?"
John Judis. New Republic Online, 05 June 2006.

A Smaller Military to Fight the War on Terror
Charles V. Peña. Orbis, Spring 2006. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Assessing America’s War on Terror: Confronting Insurgency, Cementing Primacy
Ashley J. Tellis. Carnegie Endowment, December 2004 (.pdf file).

Bounding the Global War on Terrorism
Jeffrey Record. Strategic Studies Institute, December 2003. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Dislocating Alcyoneus: How to Combat al-Qaeda and the New Terrorism
Carl Conetta. Project on Defense Alternatives, 25 June 2002.

The Struggle Against Terrorism: Grand Strategy, Strategy, and Tactics
Barry R. Posen. International Security, Winter 2001-02. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).


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Defense Policy, Critical Overviews

Is Worry about Pakistani Nukes Serving to Keep the U.S. in Iraq? - a comment on Kagan & O'Hanlon's "The Case for Larger Ground Forces"
Charles Knight. Project on Defense Alternatives, July 2007.

The Problem with Expanding the U.S. Military
Gordon Adams. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 01 May 2007.

Selling U.S. Wars: Introduction
Achin Vanaik. Transnational Institute, March 2007.

No Need to Expand U.S. Army
David C. Gompert. United Press International, 26 January 2007. Posted on the RAND website.

No Good Reason to Boost Army, Marine Corps End Strength
Carl Conetta. Project on Defense Alternatives, January 2007.

Defense Transformation: To What, For What?
Kevin Reynolds. Strategic Studies Institute, November 2006. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Pyrrhus on the Potomac: How America's Post-9/11 Wars Have Undermined U.S. National Security
Carl Conetta. Project on Defense Alternatives, 05 September 2006.

America's Post 9/11 Military: Can Congress Reform Our Shrinking, Aging, Less Ready, More Expensive Forces?
Winslow T. Wheeler. Security Policy Working Group, September 2006 (.pdf file).

QDR 2006: Dissuading China and Fighting the 'Long War'
Carl Conetta. World Policy Journal, Summer 2006. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Transforming the Global U.S. Defense Posture
Ryan Henry. Naval War College Review, Spring 2006. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

QDR 2006: Do the Forces Match the Missions? DOD Gives Little Reason to Believe
Carl Conetta. Project on Defense Alternatives, 10 February 2006.

Traditional Warfare Remains Focus of Weapons Budget
Megan Scully. CongressDaily, 07 February 2006.

Revisions in Need of Revising: What Went Wrong in the Iraq War
David C. Hendrickson and Robert W. Tucker. Strategic Studies Institute, December 2005 (.pdf file).

Transformation for What?
John P. White. Strategic Studies Institute, December 2005 (.pdf file).

Threat Inflation and the Failure of the Marketplace of Ideas
Chaim Kaufman. International Security, Summer 2004 (.pdf file).

A Swift, Elusive Sword: What if Sun Tzu and John Boyd Did a National Defense Review?
Chet Richards. Center for Defense Information, February 2003 (.pdf file).

Billions, and It Can't Make Change
Vernon Loeb. Washington Post, 13 September 2002.

Weapon Systems Die Hard, Especially on Capitol Hill
Vernon Loeb. Washington Post, 06 May 2002.

Can We Afford a Revolution in Military Affairs?
Cindy Williams and Jennifer M. Lind. Breakthroughs, Spring 1999. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).

Quadrennial Defense Review: What Went Wrong? How to Fix It
Franklin C. Spinney. Strategic Review, September 1997 (.pdf file).


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Defense Budget & Economics

Toward a Sustainable U.S. Defense Posture: An Option to save $60+ Billion Over the Next Five Years
Carl Conetta. Project on Defense Alternatives, August 2007.

Budgeting for Empire: The Effect of Iraq and Afghanistan on Military Forces, Budgets, and Plans
David Isenberg. Policy Report, Independent Institute, January 2007 (.pdf file).

GAO Chief Warns Economic Disaster Looms
Matt Crenson. The Associated Press, 28 October 2006. Posted on the Washington Post website.

America at a Crossroads
David M. Walker. Speech before the Independent Sector's CEO Summit, Minneapolis, MN, 23 October 2006 (.pdf file).

Long Term Implications of Current Defense Plans: Summary Update for Fiscal Year 2007
Congressional Budget Office, October 2006 (.pdf file).

United States in 6th Place in the World Economic Forum's 2006 Competitiveness Rankings
World Economic Forum, 27 September 2006 (.pdf file).

Skullduggery in the Pentagon's Budget
Franklin C. Spinney. CounterPunch, 27 September 2006.

Funding For Defense, Military Operations, Homeland Security and Related Activities Since 9/11
Steven Kosiak. Security Policy Working Group, September 2006 (.pdf file).

Economic Issues in Homeland Security
Richard F. Kaufman. Paper for the EEA Panel on "The Economics of Homeland Security," Philadelphia, PA, 24 February 2006 (.pdf file).

QDR Does Little To Improve Affordability of Long-Term Defense Plans
Steven M. Kosiak. Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, 03 February 2006 (.pdf file).

Financial Management Problems Facing the Defense Department
Franklin C. Spinney. Testimony before the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, 04 June 2002.

Can We Afford a Revolution in Military Affairs?
Cindy Williams and Jennifer M. Lind. Breakthroughs, Spring 1999. Posted on the Commonwealth Institute website (.pdf file).


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Official Documents

U.S. Strategy Documents 1991-2006: National Security Strategy, National Defense & Military Strategy, Quadrennial Defense Review
Project on Defense Alternatives resource page, last updated 30 August 2007.

Mapping the Global Future
Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project, December 2004.

U.S. Strategy Plan Calls for Insuring No Rivals Develop
Patrick E. Tyler. The New York Times, 08 March 1992.

Lone Superpower Plan: Ammunition for Critics
Patrick E. Tyler. The New York Times, 10 March 1992.


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Addendum: Oil & Geostrategy

Energy Alarmism: The Myths That Make Americans Worry about Oil
Eugene Gholz and Daryl G. Press. CATO Institute, April 2007 (.pdf file).

The New Axis of Oil
Flynt Leverett and Pierre Noel. The National Interest, Summer 2006.

National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency.
Report of an Independent Task Force. John Deutch and James R. Schlesinger, chairs. David G. Victor, project director. Council on Foreign Relations, 2006 (.pdf file).

The Inevitable Peaking of World Oil Production
Robert L. Hirsch. The Atlantic Council of the United States, October 2005 (.pdf file).

Oil, Geopolitics, and the Coming War with Iran
Michael T. Klare. TomDispatch.com, 11 April 2005. Posted on the Global Policy Forum website.

The Persian Gulf, Global Oil Resources, and International Security
Duane Chapman and Neha Khanna. Working Paper, Department of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, December 2004 (.pdf file).

From Free Oil to 'Freedom Oil'? Terrorism, War and U.S. Geopolitics in the Persian Gulf
Philippe Le Billon and Fouad El Khatib. Geopolitics, July 2003 (.pdf file).

Speech at the Institute of Petroleum 1999 Autumn Lunch
Dick Cheney. Full text of speech at the Institute of Petroleum Autumn lunch, 1999.


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The Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) conducts defense policy research, analysis, and development, combining “common security” and “defense reform” perspectives. The project seeks to advance policy options that reconcile the goals of:

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