Opinion: The Defense Department is long overdue for a 21st century overhaul. That would mean budget cuts far beyond what any 2020 candidates are proposing.
Charles Kenny is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development. This article is adapted from his new bookThe Pentagon, famed as the world’s largest office building, sits on 24 acres of land across the Potomac River from Washington. Home to 3.7 million square feet of offices, it was constructed during the Second World War. In anticipation of the military shrinking once peace returned, the building was designed to be easily converted into a records storage center.
What explains the decline? A few things, including changing attitudes on war among leaders and voters, the spread of democracy The richest, most powerful countries do not have the largest territory or population; they have the highest productivity. That is how California’s economy in 2018 is considerably larger than the world economy as a whole was in 1870. And the technological underpinnings of high productivity, such as the engines and solar panels and property rights, are “non-rival”—we don’t have to fight for them. If I occupy land, you cannot.
Meanwhile, the United States retains a massive global military advantage, responsible for one out of every three dollars spent on defense worldwide and outspending the countries with the next seven biggest military budgets combined. But while that ensures dominance at confrontation on the battlefield, it is not so useful for the kind of conflicts the world still fights, dominated by guerrilla warfare.
At the same time, the Defense Department is ill-equipped to deal with new international security concerns that are only going to grow. Rising productivity has increased carbon emissions and other pressures on global sustainability. Connectivity leaves people worldwide more exposed to threats from elsewhere including viruses real and virtual alongside financial contagion.
Under the circumstances, a federal bureaucratic system and budgeting process that dedicates more than half of all federal civilian employees along with one half of the federal discretionary budget to the Department of Defense is ripe for overhaul.
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