Gordon Adams

Gordon Adams is a Professor of International Relations at the School of International Service, American University, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC. He was the senior White House national security budget official from 1993-97, as Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget. He is the co-author of Buying National Security: How America Plans and Pays for its Global Role and Safety at Home (Routledge, 2010), and author of The Iron Triangle: The Politics of Defense Contracting (Transaction, 1981). He writes and blogs regularly on foreign and national security policy and budgets.

Articles from Contributor

Battleland Battleland

Is The “Defense Review” for Real?

Secretary Gates has launched a “defense review” in response to the White House announcement that “security” budgets (largely defense) will be lowered $400 billion over the next twelve years. While the decision to undertake a review sounds dramatic, the required budget changes are not as serious as they might appear. Read the

Battleland Battleland

Panetta’s Challenge

When the President announced his new national security team last week most of the attention focused on David Petraeus at CIA and the problem of winding down the war in Afghanistan. Leon Panetta’s nomination as Secretary of Defense went almost unnoticed, by comparison.

But Panetta has the bigger challenge: how to manage a build down in …

Battleland Battleland

The Defense Build-Down Is Here

President Obama’s latest announcement that he intends to seek $400 billion in reductions from his current security funding plans between FY 2012 and 2023 is only the latest signal that a defense build-down is under way. What is missing is a detailed plan for managing the build-down; that will be the responsibility of the next …

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