Financing National Defense

A volume in Research in Public Management
Series Editor: Lawrence R. Jones, Naval Postgraduate School
A myth from the colonial period was that Americans could defend themselves by keeping a rifle in
the closet and when needed, grab it, and march off to battle in times of crisis. Unfortunately,
providing national defense is more complicated that that; indeed it was more complicated even
during the Revolutionary war. General George Washington's struggles to form a standing army
supported by workable logistics and supply processes and to get funding for both from the
Revolutionary Congress are well documented. Financing national defense requires planning and
resourcing in advance. Reacting at the instant of crisis is too late. Building an educated, highly
trained and capable Armed Forces and the acquisition of defense weapons and weapons systems has
long lead times and involves making decisions the consequences of which are likely to last for decades. These decisions include how to
recruit and retain military and civilian personnel as well as designing, buying and fielding a vast array of ground weapons, ships,
aircraft and other weaponry. A decision to buy a major defense weapons system for example sets in motion a chain of other decisions
that will affect the U.S., its allies and enemies around the world. Implementation of such decisions is financed through the U.S. federal
government and Department of Defense budget processes in a planned yet highly and pluralistic and disaggregated system for
determining how to advocate, acquire and allocate scarce resources in a manner that culminates in congressional and presidential
approval. In this book we examine the concepts and practices of defense financing, provide a detailed description and analysis of
resource policy decision making, financial management and budget execution processes, and analyze the most significant features of
the national defense and U.S. federal government resource decision and management system. The book assesses the numerous factors,
including those that characterize the complex budget review and appropriation decision making dynamics of Congress, that make U.S.
defense finance and budgeting different from any other system in the world. In addition, in a concluding chapter the book compares
U.S. defense policy and budgeting to other nations in different regions of the globe, drawing conclusions about the effects of U.S.
defense policy and defense financing abroad in regions including Europe, Russia, the
Middle-East and Asia.