{
  "id": "R43403",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R43403",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 428315,
      "date": "2014-02-24",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-06T23:05:56.071249",
      "title": "The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and Defense Strategy: Issues for Congress",
      "summary": "By statute, the Department of Defense (DOD) is required, by Section 118, Title 10, U.S. Code, to submit to Congress a report based on its most recent Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) process, no later than the President submits his budget request for Fiscal Year 2015. The \u201c2014 QDR\u201d review process took place against the backdrop of key changes in the global strategic context, recent evolutions in U.S. strategic priorities, and a tighter fiscal context. The 2014 process also drew on a series of recent reviews and guidance documents\u2014a 2011 DOD \u201ccomprehensive review\u201d initially launched by Secretary of Defense Gates and continued by Secretary of Defense Panetta; the January 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance document (DSG), and the 2013 review process known as the Strategic Choices and Management Review (SCMR).\nStatute prescribes that DOD, in each QDR process, \u201cdelineate a national defense strategy;\u201d determine the force structure, modernization plans, and infrastructure required to implement that strategy; and craft an associated budget plan. Statute also spells out 16 items\u2014as well as any other matter the Secretary considers appropriate\u2014that the QDR report must address. \nMore broadly, a QDR process, and its associated report, may play any number of helpful roles: refining and updating defense strategic thinking; forging a shared vision within DOD of both priorities, and roles and missions; helping ensure a common view across the Executive Branch, of the role of DOD, in cooperation with other Departments and agencies, in support of broader national security strategy; facilitating Congressional oversight; communicating a sense of defense strategy to the American people, the taxpayers; and signaling intent abroad, to reassure Allies and partners and deter or dissuade potential foes.\nIn evaluating the 2014 QDR report and current defense strategy more broadly, Congress may choose to consider a number of issues:\nthe role of the United States on the world stage;\nchanges and trajectories in the global security environment;\nDOD\u2019s mission and geographic priorities;\nthe extent and nature for U.S. global military presence;\nthe extent and nature of U.S. international military partnerships;\nthe strategic rationale for deterrence;\nthe force planning construct (FPC), a shorthand statement of the number and type of missions the force is expected to be able to accomplish simultaneously, which is used to shape and size the force; \nthe division of labor among Military Services and components in executing the strategy; and\nthe nature and extent of the risks that defense strategy assumes.\nCongress may also wish to consider the extent of DOD\u2019s compliance with the statutory mandate for the QDR, the appropriateness of the mandate itself; and DOD\u2019s tools and approaches for crafting strategy in general.",
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      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "topics": []
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  "topics": [
    "National Defense"
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}