The U.S. defense budget serves as a sign of how America has prioritized its global commitments and the bridge between strategy and implementation, where military capabilities define the roles and missions of America’s men and women in uniform. The defense budget has broad global impact, but understanding it is not always easy. As military spending finds its way into the nation’s headlines, learn more about how America allocates resources to support its strength abroad.

President Obama’s budget cuts the U.S. military while asking those in uniform to accept more risk in their jobs and providing fewer resources to fulfill their missions. Congress should reject these proposals as going too far for too few and pass a budget resolution that adds additional resources to properly fund military readiness and modernization.

The Defending Defense Coalition brings together the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Foreign Policy Initiative to promote a sound understanding of the U.S. defense budget and the resource requirements necessary to sustain America's preeminent military position in a dangerous world.

The Defending Defense Coalition brings together the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Foreign Policy Initiative to promote a sound understanding of the U.S. defense budget and the resource requirements necessary to sustain America's preeminent military position in a dangerous world. This event will examine the release of...

As the Pentagon unveils its new budget numbers today, you might be interested in what AEI expert Thomas (Tom) Donnelly recently wrote about the administration's defense strategy (full text here):

The Obama administration knows full well what the state of the military is. However, because it would rather shift the country’s spending priorities to domestic programs long favored by Democrats, it has willingly accepted, indeed gone beyond, what the 2011 Budget Control Act required in cuts to national security programs.

President Obama today unveiled a new national defense strategy  creating a "leaner"  force that Secretary of Defense Panetta allows will create "some level of additional but acceptable risk."  Moving away from the traditional two war strategy, and hinting at substantial reductions in Europe, the President presented a dramatic shift in global posture for the United States.

The threat of a $500 billion defense sequestration looms as a result of the Super Committee failure - a prospect that Secretary Panetta has called "potentially ruinous." Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Representative Howard "Buck" McKeon and some of his Senate colleagues have promised...