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Project on the Federal Budget and Budget Process for National Security and International Affairs
Presidents are required by law to articulate a national security strategy. Unless backed by money and other resources, however, such strategy documents are little more than rhetoric. Real strategy means setting priorities and allocating resources to them. Unfortunately, federal processes to allocate resources for national security and global leadership are stuck in the Cold War. To maintain America’s role in the world and respond to post-Cold War challenges, the nation needs a new funding strategy.
Today’s resource allocation processes impede the implementation of leaders’ priorities, lead to duplication in some areas and underfunding in others, and lack the agility and flexibility that will be needed to respond to rapid changes in the world—agility and flexibility that could be achieved by taking greater advantage of modern information technologies.
The project is aimed at exploring how today’s national security resource allocation processes operate and developing a blueprint for redesigning the system. It is examining in detail several recent experiences of planning and resource allocation for missions that cut across agencies and budget functions, in order to identify mechanisms that would improve responsiveness, coherence, and agility of the system, thus leading to more effective policy.
Managed by Dr. Cindy Wiliams, a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Security Studies Program.
