Columnists

Gordon Adams

Getting U.S. foreign assistance right

2 May 2008

A new cabinet department dedicated exclusively to development will not cure what ails Washington’s foreign aid programs.

The true cost of U.S. defense spending

27 March 2008

The Pentagon continues to ask for endless defense funding with little regard for the damage inflated budgets will do down the road.

New funds for foreign aid

12 February 2008

The Bush administration finally recognizes that the United States cannot keep creating new assistance programs around the globe while cutting the staff we need to run them.

How much defense spending is enough?

23 January 2008

Some defense analysts think Washington needs to continue spending money on the military at record levels. But it's an assertion unsupported by any strategy or need.

U.S. foreign policy and foreign assistance: The momentum for reform

17 December 2007

Four recent reports outline ways in which Washington can fix the dysfunctional, underfunded civilian agencies that define and implement U.S. foreign policy and assistance activities.

A look at the 2008 defense budget

14 November 2007

A historically large defense budget reflects more of the same: U.S. reliance on the military to solve all of Washington's security woes.

Reforming the State Department

21 October 2007

For Washington to successfully address the security challenges it faces, the mission and culture at U.S. foreign-policy agencies such as the State Department must be revamped.

When national security meets government bureaucracy

18 September 2007

Too often Washington confronts its national security challenges by installing a "czar" to knock heads and inspire collaboration among government agencies. Here’s why that approach doesn’t work.

Creating an integrated U.S. national security policy

18 July 2007

By asking what if, U.S. policy makers and advisers might find the solutions to restoring the country's credibility abroad.

Straightening out U.S. foreign aid programs

28 May 2007

If the United States wants to engage the world with something other than force, it needs to fix the chaotic way it provides foreign assistance.

The problem with expanding the U.S. military

30 April 2007

Many in the United States think that adding more troops will solve all of the country's current and future national security problems. They should think again.

The U.S. military’s growing role in foreign policy

1 April 2007

Letting the Pentagon execute a growing portion of the U.S. national security policy isn't in the best interest of the military or the country.

Defense spending: Embarrassment of riches

4 March 2007

If at first the U.S. Armed Services don’t receive the funding they want, they try, try again.

Unbalanced priorities

4 February 2007

The proposed U.S. budget may allow the military to pursue foreign policy initiatives, but it's a job best left to the State Department.

Profile

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Gordon Adams

A professor of international relations at American University’s School of International Service, Adams also serves as a distinguished fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Center. His expertise is in U.S. national security policy and budget planning across the country’s security institutions--the Defense Department, State Department, and intelligence agencies among them. In 1983, he founded the Defense Budget Project (now the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments), a nonpartisan research center that analyzes defense economics and defense policy. From 1993 to 1997, he worked as the White House’s senior national security budget official at the Office of Management and Budget, where he oversaw all U.S. foreign affairs and national security budgeting.

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