Author Archive
William D. Hartung
Director, Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy
William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, a senior adviser to the Center’s Security Assistance Monitor, and a co-director of the Center's Sustainable Defense Task Force. He is the author of the Monitor’s March 2018 report, “Trends in Major U.S. Arms Sales 2017: A Comparison of the Obama and Trump Administrations.”
Ideas
Pushing Billions in Arms Sales Is Not an ‘Accomplishment’
It matters to whom the weapons are flowing and how they will be used.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
A $13 Billion Contract for ICBMs: What’s the Rush?
The deal needs closer scrutiny — as does the purported need for new long-range ballistic missiles at all.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Congress Needs a Veto, Not a Notification, on Arms Sales
The Trump administration’s efforts to evade oversight show why more is needed.
- William D. Hartung and Elias Yousif
Ideas
Time to Rethink Security Aid to Egypt
More than $40 billion over three decades has bought only dubious benefits to U.S. security.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Overspending on the Pentagon Won’t Make Us Safer
We spend far more on the military than the countries we most fear, while shorting the things that would actually help us compete.
- William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman
Ideas
Don’t Use the Iran Crisis As An Excuse To Boost Pentagon Spending
Use it to reconsider the American approach to national security.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
America’s Military Is Misdirected, Not Underfunded
U.S. strategy should be more focused on preventing conflict with nuclear-armed China than on spinning out elaborate war-fighting scenarios.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Does America Need a Space Force?
A new service branch would put more bureaucracy between critical capabilities and the troops who need them.
- William D. Hartung and Mandy Smithberger
Ideas
Who Needs ICBMs?
Spend the money on the other two legs of the nuclear triad, and improve global stability and U.S. security.
- William D. Hartung and Jessica Sleight
Ideas
Would a $700 Billion Budget Really Sink the Pentagon?
Resistance is already forming to a proposed decrease in 2020 spending. It’s important to understand just what that decrease means.
- William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman
Ideas
NATO Already Vastly Outspends Russia. Its Problems Are Not About Money.
The alliance’s security issues can’t be fixed by a traditional military buildup.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Thornberry’s Pentagon-Reform Plan to Nowhere
It's pitched as a way to cut waste — but would make the misallocation of our tax dollars more likely.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Arms Sales Decisions Shouldn’t Be About Jobs
Basic foreign policy principles should drive potential weapons exports, not pork-barrel politics.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Putting the Pentagon's Pennies in Perspective
$80 billion is a lot of money. And that's just the "modest" increase on this year's defense budget.
- William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman
Ideas
There’s Less than Meets the Eye in Trump’s Saudi Arms Deal
It takes a lot of existing offers and future promises to add up to $110 billion.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Congress Should Demand Wiser, Not More, War Spending
There’s too much slush in the supplemental, as shown by the fourfold jump in spending per deployed servicemember.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
Reform Pentagon Acquisition By Slowing Down the F-35
John McCain and Ash Carter want real acquisition reform? Great, they can start by slowing – or stopping – the F-35.
- William D. Hartung
Ideas
It’s Time to Sink the Littoral Combat Ship
Things that seem too good to be true usually are, and so it is with the LCS. By Jacob Marx and William D. Hartung
- William D. Hartung and Jacob Marx
Business
Playing the Defense Jobs Card Isn’t Working Anymore
By our count, there are half the F-35 jobs as Lockheed claims. Using defense jobs to fight budget cuts isn’t working like it used to, for good reason. By William D. Hartung
- William D. Hartung