Providing for the Common Defense: Four Percent for Freedom

Publication Date: December 2007

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Jim Talent; Mackenzie M. Eaglen

Research Area: Military and defense

Keywords: National security; National Security; 4% of GDP; Military Coalition

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

U.S. foreign policy needs a strong military. Allocating a minimum of 4 percent of GDP to defense spending would be a first step toward meeting both current and future national security requirements and would help to protect the military from a post-Iraq "peace dividend" similar to the "procurement holiday" that ravaged the military after the end of the Cold War.