Bottom-Up Review

Plan for restructuring the United States military after the Cold War and reducing military expenditures. When Bill Clinton assumed the presidency in 1993, the United States had just emerged from the Cold War. For the first time in decades, the United States lacked an opponent who possessed an equal military strength. Because President Clinton had made the reduction of the federal deficit one of the cornerstones of his campaign, he viewed the Soviet Union's collapse as an excuse to downsize the United States military and reduce defense spending. In the spring of 1993, the Clinton administration proposed to abandon the traditional strategy of preparing for two simultaneous conflicts and to reduce force levels accordingly.

Several events in 1994 forced the administration to scuttle this proposal. Within a span of several months, North Korea threatened to build nuclear weapons, Iraq continued to resist inspections of its own weapons programs, and ethnic violence in the Balkans greatly increased. The Clinton administration admitted that the United States must remain prepared to confront two different hostile situations. Instead, the administration proposed to conduct a bottom-up review of the entire United States military.

After the review was completed, the Clinton administration released its key recommendations. Although the United States would retain the capability to fight in two theaters, the theaters themselves would be altered. Instead of preparing for a Soviet invasion of Europe, the United States would now concentrate on the Middle East. The United States would retain a strong presence in Asia, but the focus would be the Korean peninsula. The administration determined that a force of 1.45 million active-duty personnel would be needed to complete these missions. The United States would also maintain its forward presence in the Mediterranean Sea, the Western Pacific, and the Persian Gulf.

Additionally, the Clinton administration recognized the need to maintain a technological superiority over any potential rivals. Therefore, it promoted the development of new fighter jets, precision-guided munitions, advanced communication systems, and new attack submarines. The administration's unstated goal was to see the United States ensconced as the world's sole superpower. If the United States maintained a hegemonic position, the administration believed, other countries would refrain from seeking to ascend the international stage.

Many of the recommendations that resulted from the bottom-up review were insightful and advantageous to the United States and its national security. [Page 90]The Clinton administration, however, failed to secure adequate funding for these initiatives and their implementation. Ultimately, the administration's desire to reduce the deficit and balance the budget outweighed its desire to fully enact the reforms suggested in the bottom-up review. Consequently, the size of the military was reduced during the Clinton administration and many of the programs recommended in the review were delayed.

This conflict between budgetary constraints and the need for a restructured military has persisted during George W. Bush's presidency. When the Bush administration began, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced his intention to reshape the military. Unfortunately, the War on Terror has intervened, leaving the goal of the bottom-up review only partially accomplished.