The Pentagon's Defense Review: Not Ready for Prime Time; The Quadrennial Review Fails to Realign the Military to Defend Against New Threats Or Reorder Funding Priorities to Meet Those Threats‪.‬

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be. This witty observation by 19th century French poet Paul Valery captures precisely the ever-changing nature of today's global security environment. Consider the events and changes since 2001: the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. commitment to a long-term campaign against radical Islamism, the threat of increased nuclear proliferation, and the continued growth of Chinese military capabilities along disturbing lines. This was the environment confronted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and defense planners in preparing the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which is required by law every fours years and which was recently submitted to Congress. The QDR has four key tasks. The first is to determine what major challenges the United States may have to confront during the next 20 years. The second is to present a strategy for meeting these challenges. Then the QDR must assess whether the force structure and defense program proposed by the Department of Defense (DOD) are consistent with the diagnosis of the threats and the strategy proposed for addressing them. Finally, the QDR has to estimate the level of resources necessary to implement the strategy. In brief, the QDR assesses not only what needs to be done to ensure the security of the United States today but what also must be done to prepare for threats that lie along the misty horizon of America's future.