President Barack Obama announced Monday that he has nominated Dr. Ashton B. Carter to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.

The National Security Advisory Group sounds a warning, raising awareness about the state of our ground forces today and the very real risk that poses to our future security. The group also proposes an action plan for restoring the health and vitality of the U.S. military.

Most national security debates concern the outcomes of policies, neglecting the means by which those policies are implemented. This book argues that although the US military is the finest fighting force in the world, the system that supports it is in disrepair. Operating with Cold War-era structures and practices, it is subject to managerial and organizational problems that increasingly threaten our military's effectiveness.

Dr. Ashton B. Carter in Foreign Affairs.

Article by Dr. Ashton B. Carter in Survival

Op-ed by Dr. Ashton B. Carter and Dr. John M. Deutch in The Wall Street Journal

Chapter in Janne E. Nolan's book "Global Engagement: Cooperation and Security in the 21st Century"

Chapter 9 in New Nuclear Nations: Consequences for U.S. Policy

"CSIA's research on cooperative denuclearization began during the August 1991 putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev. To those of us familiar with nuclear weapons, their construction, and command and control, and with the looming revolution about to sweep the then–Soviet Union, it was plain that a new and unprecedented danger to international security was emerging. An appropriate policy response to this new form of nuclear threat could not be fashioned from traditional Cold War tools of deterrence, arms control, and military preparedness alone. Safety could only be sought through new policies emphasizing cooperative engagement with the new states, new leaders, and military and industrial heirs of the former Soviet Union...."

Book by Ashton B. Carter, John D. Steinbruner, and Charles A. Zraket