Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2012

The FY2013 Defense Budget, the Threat of Defense Cuts and Sequestration and the Strategy-Reality Gap

Anthony H. Cordesman, Robert M. Shelala II

June 2012

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract

The US faces a major crisis in reshaping its strategy and forces at a time when it must sharply constrain federal spending, continue making major force cuts, and cope with the threat of sequestration and massive further cuts in national security spending. The Burke Chair has prepared an updated analysis by Anthony H. Cordesman and Robert M. Shelala II that traces the pressures affecting defense spending during the coming decade, the success of the new strategy in dealing with these pressures in concrete workable terms, and the resulting gap between the new strategy and the probable trends in resources.