Building a Military for the 21st Century: New Realities, New Priorities

December 10, 2008, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

About This Event

In a little over one month, a new administration will have the opportunity to manage a significant realignment of U.S. defense and national security priorities. This process will not occur in a vacuum. Today's security imperatives and budgetary realities will require the next administration to make hard decisions and difficult trade-offs on competing visions of the military and its role in implementing national security strategy. These trade-offs will have wide-ranging consequences for the size and structure of the force, and which procurement and modernization options are feasible in order to advance overall U.S. national security interests.

In order to make these important decisions, the Center for American Progress is releasing "The Military Inheritance: A Call to Action for the Next Commander in Chief." The report evaluates the current state of the military; examines the current composition of the defense budget; defines the threats, challenges, and role of the U.S. military in the 21st century; and gives CAP's recommendations of what difficult trade-offs the Department of Defense should make on key weapons systems.

Keynote Speaker:

Congressman John Murtha (D-PA)

Distinguished Panelists will include:

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA), Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Lt. Gen. Michael M. Dunn, President, Air Force Association, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, Deputy Chief of Staff, G8, Director of Force Development

Discussion Moderated by:

Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Resources

Read full transcript here.