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.

We are not in a cold war with China. That is too simple a metaphor to describe the state of Sino-American relations.

The new government in Yemen has extracted several of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s cronies from the country’s power structure, including demotion of Saleh’s half-brother Mohammed al Ahmar and nephew Tareq Mohammed Saleh, the former heads of the Air Force and Presidential Guard, respectively.

AEI’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies will host Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter for a timely discussion of U.S. defense budgets, of the changing strategic landscape in the U.S. and the force that this landscape demands.

In the latest Middle Eastern Outlook, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) resident fellow Ali Alfoneh examines how Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC QF) is increasingly shaped by a new generation of commanders like Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi, whose close ties with Iraqi insurgents--now power brokers--date back to the Iran-Iraq war.

While the rest of us watching defense issues were still trying to make sense of what the new Pentagon budget actually means, the Chinese doubled down on their push to become Asia’s most powerful country.

So men and women who faced death at Fallujah or Kandahar or Desert Storm are now to face death panels at home? That’s the upshot of the administration’s plans for military health care.

 It’s time for policymakers to man up about the fact that the missions heaped upon the military are growing as they pour resources into handouts for bad mortgages, unemployment and other entitlements. Those who pay most dearly wear the uniform. They will not be able to keep it up much longer. And we won’t be the America we think we are anymore.