New National Defense Strategy commission named

By Tony Bertuca / January 11, 2023 at 2:00 PM

A new commission to assess the National Defense Strategy has been named, according to a Senate Armed Services Committee announcement.

The commission will be chaired by former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), while Eric Edelman, a former ambassador and Pentagon policy chief who is currently a counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, will be vice chair.

Other commissioners include retired Army four-star John “Jack” Keane, CSBA president and CEO Thomas Mahnken, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress Mara Rudman, Microsoft’s Mariah Sixkiller, Cloudfare Inc.’s Alissa Starzak and Roger Zakheim, the Washington director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

The commission is required by Congress in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

Among other things, the commission is tasked with providing “an evaluation of the resources necessary to support the strategy, including budget recommendations.”

The previous NDS commission produced an influential report that eventually became the basis for GOP lawmakers seeking to annually increase defense spending between 3% and 5%.

Edelman, Keane, Mahnken and Zakheim all served on the previous commission, though Edelman was previously co-chair.

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