An open letter, sponsored by forty-six of America’s leading foreign policy academics, was recently posted to the bi-partisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (previously mentioned here: http://powerpolitics.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2010/11/17/slashing-the-us-defense-budget-not-so-fast/ ) criticizing the Obama Administration’s exemption of defense spending from the bulk of austerity measures aimed at restoring “fiscal responsibility”.
As a service to my readers, here are the major highlights of the letter:
The vitality of our economy is the cornerstone of our nation’s strength.
Today the United States possesses a wide margin of global military superiority. The defense budget can bear significant reduction without compromising our essential security.
We recognize that larger military adversaries may rise to face us in the future. But the best hedge against this possibility is vigilance and a vibrant economy supporting a military able to adapt to new challenges as they emerge.
We also need to be more judicious in our choice of security instruments when dealing with international challenges.
…Fiscal realities call on us to strike a new balance between investing in military power and attending to the fundamentals of national strength on which our true power rests. 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.
The message concludes with several specific recommendations, largely aimed at reducing the global footprint of U.S. military power and aligning ways and means with regards to defense acquisition.
A full text of the letter is available here: http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/NCFRRexpertsletter.pdf
