ASHTON B. CARTER

The officials responsible for acquisitions [at the Pentagon] are loathe to take risks, since they can be held personally accountable if something goes wrong.

The Pentagon cannot acquire any equipment or technology without adequate funding. And the current budget process does not allow for the development and deployment of solutions to urgent problems on the battlefield.

Other countries were using drones before the United States was using them..

History is the default methodology for thinking through the world for most people.

History is the single discipline from the world of learning that most informs action in the world. So if you ask world leaders what guides them in making decisions about a new circumstance that they have just encountered it is usually implicitly “a little like this” or “a little like” something else that happened in the past. They use that much more than they use political science theories or economic theories. It is “what is this like that has happened in the past”.

In Afghanistan and Iraq [the wars], the Pentagon saw little value in making acquisitions that would be irrelevant by the time they were ready.

The United States is necessary for the solution to many problems in the world today. However, we are no longer sufficient..

In Afghanistan and Iraq [the wars], the Pentagon saw little value in making acquisitions that would be irrelevant by the time they were ready.

The officials responsible for acquisitions [at the Pentagon] are loathe to take risks, since they can be held personally accountable if something goes wrong.

The Pentagon cannot acquire any equipment or technology without adequate funding. And the current budget process does not allow for the development and deployment of solutions to urgent problems on the battlefield.

The United States is necessary for the solution to many problems in the world today. However, we are no longer sufficient..

Other countries were using drones before the United States was using them..

History is the default methodology for thinking through the world for most people.

History is the single discipline from the world of learning that most informs action in the world. So if you ask world leaders what guides them in making decisions about a new circumstance that they have just encountered it is usually implicitly “a little like this” or “a little like” something else that happened in the past. They use that much more than they use political science theories or economic theories. It is “what is this like that has happened in the past”.