Scowcroft Center Experts on Defense Budget (Atlantic Council, 2014)

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This resource is a 2014 defense policy news item with no direct relevance to AI safety; it appears to have been tagged incorrectly and has minimal value for an AI safety knowledge base.

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Summary

A 2014 Atlantic Council news item in which Scowcroft Center experts comment on the Pentagon's proposed defense budget, addressing congressional battles, spending readjustments post-surge, and the controversy around controlling military personnel costs.

Key Points

•Experts anticipated major congressional resistance to proposed defense budget reforms, especially in an election year.
•The budget was characterized as a natural post-surge readjustment rather than a new era of austerity, with spending near historical averages.
•Controlling personnel costs (salaries, pensions, healthcare) was identified as fiscally necessary but politically toxic.
•The budget was seen as favorable to navy and air force priorities.

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[In the News](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/category/insight-impact/in-the-news/)

February 28, 2014

# Scowcroft Center Experts on Defense Budget

ByBarry Pavel

Vice President and Scowcroft Center on International Security Director Barry Pavel and Scowcroft Center Senior Fellows James Hasik and James Joyner are quoted by the _Financial Times_ on the new defense budget:

“I have no doubt there will be huge congressional battles over what was announced. In an election year, it is going to be hard for Congress to swallow some of these proposed reforms,” says Barry Pavel, a former senior Pentagon official.

…

The new budget “sustains a lot of stuff that is dear to the navy and to the air force”, says Jim Hasik, a defence expert at the Atlantic Council in Washington. It is in some ways a natural readjustment after the surge in spending over the past decade, rather than a new era of austerity. In constant dollars, the Pentagon will still spend at about its historical average levels, even compared with the cold war when the military challenge it faced was much starker.

…

Attempts to control personnel costs are even more controversial. Among military analysts it is almost an article of faith that the Pentagon needs to reduce spending on salaries, pensions and healthcare if it is to have money for new weapons programmes. “Realigning personnel costs and funding the pension system just has to be done, but it is a sort of third rail now,” says James Joyner, a professor at the US Marine Corps Staff College. [Read the full article here.](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/404bc9f6-a060-11e3-8557-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2ueXwlN7d)

Related Experts: [James Hasik](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/james-hasik/) and [James Joyner](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/?post_type=expert&p=73498)

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