The United States faces a pivotal moment in shaping its defense priorities. Decades of mismatched strategy and resources have left America's military strength at a nadir, unable to fully meet its global responsibilities or adequately deter growing threats. The strategic-resource mismatch—the gap between what is expected of the military and the funding it receives—has undermined the US military's strategic and conventional deterrence across the critical theaters of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Congress, the White House, and the armed forces must address this disconnect with immediate and realistic solutions to rebuild American military strength. The American Enterprise Institute launched this project to prove that the United States is not adequately addressing growing global strategic threats, dispel the pervasive myth that the United States cannot afford the defense its strategy demands, and develop a body of policy work focused on resourcing a multi-theater military that can meet its global requirements.
Affording Defense is the first step in this effort to provide Washington's decision-makers a clear path to closing the strategy-resource mismatch at last.
