Last week the American Enterprise Institutre held an free-wheeling discussion on the future of the Defenese budget. The panel included a number of interesting commentators, particularly Dov Zakheim, former Comptroller of DoD. While the discussion did not speak to S&T issues specifically, it provided a helpful perspective in which S&T issues could be placed. If you have 2 hours available I would strongly encourage you to listen to it. I caught most of it in the car this morning, but I will hopefully listen to it again and provide some comments when inaugural events slow down.
Click on this link to CSPAN and you fill find the event archived halfway down the page.
AEI abstract on the event after the jump.
The Pentagon Budget Cuts
Start: Thursday, January 13, 2005 2:00 PM
End: Thursday, January 13, 2005 4:00 PM
Location: Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Directions to AEI
Faced with mounting costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention a growing federal deficit, the Pentagon is bracing for billions of dollars in budget cuts for the first time since 9/11. Although the Defense Department's 2006 budget will not be formally released until February, some of the military's largest weapons systems—including the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor and the Navy's shipbuilding program—are reportedly in jeopardy.
How should the Pentagon adjust its acquisition strategy in a time of both war and fiscal austerity? Who will be biggest winners and losers in this process? What will be the impact of the Bush administration's belt-tightening on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's vision for military transformation? How will the budget cuts affect the defense industry?
These and other questions will be the subject of an AEI panel discussion. Participants include Dov Zakheim, former under secretary of defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Pentagon (2001–2004); Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; Michael O'Hanlon, Sydney Stein Jr. Chair in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution; and Loren B. Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute. Thomas Donnelly, AEI resident fellow in defense and security policy, will moderate.
1:45 p.m.
Registration
2:00 Discussants: Steven Kosiak, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
Michael O'Hanlon, Brookings Institution
Loren B. Thompson, Lexington Institute
Dov Zakheim, Booz Allen & Hamilton
Moderator: Thomas Donnelly, AEI
4:00
Adjournment
Available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
More Information
Vance Serchuk
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-5845
Fax: 202-862-5867
E-mail: vserchuk@aei.org
Media Inquiries
Veronique Rodman
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-4871
Fax: 202-862-7171
E-mail: VRodman@aei.org
You can find this online at: http://www.aei.org/event985
Posted by TomJones at January 17, 2005 04:41 PM | TrackBack