Defense contingency budgeting in the post-cold-war world

Among the National Performance Review's (NPR) prescriptions are recommendations to implement mechanisms that would provide greater flexibility in budgeting processes, particularly in the area of national security. Ex post contingency budget execution in defense already provides considerable flexibility for defense spenders - as this article illustrates with a case study of the financing of United States involvement in Bosnia. Yet, the spending discretion that has sustained U.S. peacekeeping in Bosnia is quite different from, and in some respects antithetical to, the flexibility championed by advocates of various versions of the new public management (such as NPR). Neither the current system for funding defense contingencies nor the proposals of the National Performance Review achieve the goals of providing accountable and effective mechanisms for funding these operations. Thus we offer modest proposals for reform that may make changes akin to those of the new public management compatible with traditional forms of budget execution. If implemented, the new mechanisms could permit the executive and legislative branches to focus on the policy questions inherent in post-cold-war military contingencies.