Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – The Hoover Institution has published Defense Budgeting for a Safer World: The Experts Speak, a new volume edited by Wohlford Family Senior Fellow Michael Boskin; Visiting Fellow John Rader; and risk management expert Kiran Sridhar.
The publication was adapted from a conference held at the Hoover Institution in January 2023, which brought together leading experts from the military, government, academe, and think tanks. Participants analyzed the major weaknesses, strengths, challenges, and opportunities in reforming the defense budget to better enable a more effective national security strategy.
Defense Budgeting for a Safer World offers the full proceedings from that conference—both the presentations and the profound discussions and debates that followed—making them available to policymakers, thought leaders, and anyone interested in defense spending and its wider ramifications for national security.
The volume features commentaries and analyses from top experts, including former secretaries of state, key military heads, senior leaders in the Defense Department, and other specialists with backgrounds in national security, economics, budgeting, diplomacy, politics, and history.
There is general widespread agreement among these professionals that the adversaries of the United States are devoting more resources to closing the military gap. The contributors share their insights on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and on the rapid emergence of China as a military world power with the growing threat of a military takeover of Taiwan.
“The defense budget is the foundation of our military capability,” said Boskin. “We have a big mission ahead of us, and if the defense budget isn't realigned, rightsized, and reformed, that mission is going to become much more difficult, and the world will become more dangerous, which we don't need and don't want.”
In discussing the US response to these challenges, the experts describe the need for greater adequacy, flexibility, and accountability within the defense budget; and the importance of better coordination with allies, investing in modernization of aging weapons systems, and educating the public on the role the defense budget plays in enabling the military to keep America safe, free, and prosperous.
Acclaim for Defense Budgeting for a Safer World
“This volume starkly hammers home the reality that failure to reform the defense budgeting process truly undermines our military capabilities and imperils the nation. . . . A must-read for members of Congress, leaders of the executive branch, and all who care about our national security”
—Robert M. Gates, former secretary of defense and director of central intelligence
“This collection is an important call to better marshal the national strength that sustains strategy. It is an urgent book by a distinguished group of nonpartisan contributors.”
—Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state and national security advisor
“A tremendous source of invaluable insights, assessments, and policy proposals, and an extraordinary contribution to the most significant debates of the day.”
—General David Petraeus, US Army (ret.), former commander, US Central Command and NATO/US forces in Afghanistan, and director of the CIA
“With the nation’s values, interests, and security threatened around the globe and its economic well-being threatened by an unsustainable federal budget outlook . . . [this] is the ideal book for this moment in history.”
—Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director, Congressional Budget Office
“Superb synthesis of thought from today’s leading national security experts . . . [offering] keen insights and solutions to provide for the common defense in the twenty-first century.”
—General Joseph Dunford, former chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and commandant of the Marine Corps
Contributors
Keith Alexander; Michael J. Boskin; Corey Braddock; Michael Brown; David S. C. Chu; James M. Cunningham; Bart D’Angelo; Mackenzie Eaglen; Eric Fanning; Joseph H. Felter; Michèle Flournoy; Vishaal “V8” Hariprasad; James M. Harrington; Tim Kane; Christopher Kirchhoff; Ellen Lord; Oriana Skylar Mastro; Jim Mattis; Elaine McCusker; Michael McFaul; H.R. McMaster; Casey “Waldo” Miller; Mike Mullen; David L. Norquist; Michael O’Hanlon; Leon Panetta; John N. Rader; Condoleezza Rice; Gary Roughead; Nadia Schadlow; Jacquelyn Schneider; Raj Shah; Kiran Sridhar; Mac Thornberry; Mark R. Wilson; Roger Zakheim; and Amy Zegart
About the Editors
Michael J. Boskin is the Wohlford Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Tully M. Friedman Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
John N. Rader is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, chief operating officer at Affinity Partners Global LLC, and former senior policy advisor, National Security Council.
Kiran Sridhar is the head of strategic initiatives for Resilience and serves on the investment team of Shield Capital.
For coverage opportunities, contact Jeffrey Marschner, 202-760-3187, jmarsch@stanford.edu.
