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This book offers a systematic guide to the allocation of American taxpayer dollars used to provide for the common defense. With engaging and illustrative examples like the narrative of a helicopter purchase, it reveals an unexpectedly chaotic political process that produces a conversely stable aggregate defense budget. The book explores specific attempts to control or influence these turbulent funding outcomes as Congress reviews the Presidential budget request. Containing data and sources largely unavailable to researchers without access to the Department of Defense, the book should be of interest to anyone looking for a direct, current, and methodical analysis of defense budget outcomes that preserves the informal and nuanced mechanics of a political and complicated process.
List of contents
1. Why The Defense Budget is Worth Considering.- 2. Congress Reviews the Army's Budget.- 3. An Acquisition and Budgeting Primer.- 4. Uncovering Turmoil in Stable Budgets.- 5. Some Explanations for Budget Volatility.- 6. Army Engagement With Congress.- 7. A Bleak Outlook for Future Combat Systems.- 8. Reconciling Volatility and Stability in the Defense Budget.
About the author
Heidi Brockmann Demarest is an Army officer and Director of the American Politics program in the Department of Social Sciences at the US Military Academy. She has served in multiple assignments as a military intelligence officer, most recently as the Deputy Commander of the Army’s offensive cyber brigade from 2013-2015. Her research interests include defense budgeting, defense acquisition, and socioeconomic inequality.
Summary
This book offers a systematic guide to the allocation of American taxpayer dollars used to provide for the common defense. With engaging and illustrative examples like the narrative of a helicopter purchase, it reveals an unexpectedly chaotic political process that produces a conversely stable aggregate defense budget. The book explores specific attempts to control or influence these turbulent funding outcomes as Congress reviews the Presidential budget request. Containing data and sources largely unavailable to researchers without access to the Department of Defense, the book should be of interest to anyone looking for a direct, current, and methodical analysis of defense budget outcomes that preserves the informal and nuanced mechanics of a political and complicated process.
