quoting Timothy Kane via American Enterprise Institute
The temptation to ridicule the use of econometric methods to understand international politics is nearly overwhelming, but a recent paper by Tim Kane of the Hoover Institution chokes natural inclination. “The Decline of American Engagement: Patterns in US Troop Deployments,” published in January 2016, is a sobering set of data cataloging what Kane concludes is “the strategic withdrawal of US forces from the world.” Even if one doubts whether the future course of American statecraft will fulfill his regression-driven predictions, his analysis, particularly of the post-Cold War and post-9/11 periods, is powerful.
By Daniel Gouré, RealClearDefense: “ ... the U.S. military is worn out from nearly two decades of continuous operations, lacks adequate resources to meet current demands for basic necessities such as precision munitions and needs to overcome a lost decade of modernization.”
Repair and rebuild: Balancing new military spending for a three-theater strategy
Mackenzie Eaglen | AEI
In her new report, “Repair and Rebuild: Balancing New Military Spending for a Three-Theater Strategy,” Mackenzie Eaglen argues that in order for the US military to resolve near-term readiness issues, expand its force structure, and invest in technological breakthroughs to sustain simultaneous operations across the European, Middle East, and Asian theaters, Congress must allocate an additional $130 billion above the current Budget Control Act caps, as is depicted in the figure to the left. To readEaglen’s full report, click here. Or, get smart fast by checking out the one-pager summarizing the report’s findings. See it here
By Mackenzie Eaglen, The National Interest: “At his 1993 Confirmation as Director of the CIA, James Woolsey observed that “we have slain a large [Soviet] dragon, but we live now in a jungle with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes.” His predictions have borne out across the three theaters most pivotal to America's interests.”