Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense

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Stimson's Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense program vision is to improve American national security at a lower cost to the American people. We seek to strengthen the capacity and capability of the US government to frame, resource, and execute foreign and national security policies and programs.

We provide pragmatic options for strengthening civilian foreign policy institutions and providing discipline and focus to defense institutions, with a particular focus on human and fiscal resources, structures, and planning and budgeting processes, and authorities. We communicate our analyses and proposals to policymakers, the media, and interested organizations working in the foreign policy and national security fields.

Our blog, The Will and the Wallet, is dedicated to providing insightful research and analysis on the budgets, authorities, institutions, structures, and processes that drive US foreign affairs and defense policy.

Current Research

A New US Defense Strategy for a New Era: Military Superiority, Agility, and Efficiency

The changing global security landscape and worsening fiscal outlook demand significant adjustments to national security strategy and budgeting, according to an extensive, year-long study released today by Stimson: A New US Defense Strategy for a New Era.

The report is the work of an independent task force of experts - the "Defense Advisory Committee" - convened by Stimson to
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Diplomacy in a Time of Scarcity

The United States faces unprecedented challenges in conducting diplomacy and development as it responds to the residuals of three wars and a constantly changing global environment. At the same time, the outlook for the entire federal budget has changed dramatically. A new era requiring increased fiscal austerity has emerged, and it threatens to not only end
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Consulting the American People on National Defense Spending

With the United States facing large budget deficits, a major debate is underway in Washington DC over whether defense spending will be subject to cuts.

Unless Congress succeeds in agreeing on a new budget, current law calls for the 'sequestration' provision to kick in, which would cut defense spending 10 percent. Many voices on both sides of the aisle have expressed substantial
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Resolving Ambiguity: Costing Nuclear Weapons

As the defense budget comes under increasing pressure, many have suggested nuclear weapons as an area for savings. But estimates of what the United States spends on nuclear weapons widely vary.

This report provides an estimate of US spending on nuclear weapons that resolves most of the ambiguity created by that variance. It makes two key contributions to the debate about
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What We Bought: Defense Procurement from FY01 to FY10

Prevailing wisdom on defense spending in the past decade asserts that despite the large amount spent, we did not modernize our weapons systems. In reality, the military services did take advantage of increased procurement funding to modernize their forces, although not always as expected. This paper analyzes procurement funding of the last decade and demonstrates that though
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