Christopher M. Schnaubelt

This update of a previous report provides findings on economic activity supported by total Army spending in congressional districts for fiscal years 2014 through 2017. Using input/output models, researchers estimated that the Army directly spent approximately $80.1 million in the median congressional district and $1.3 billion in the median state in fiscal year 2017, translating into approximately 3,800 jobs per district and 48,000 jobs per state.

This report presents findings on the economic activity supported by total Army spending in each of the 435 congressional districts for fiscal years 2012-2014. Using input/output models, researchers estimated that in FY 2014, the Army directly spent approximately $121 million in the median congressional district (in 2012 dollars), translating into about 4,200 jobs and contributing to $375 million of economic output.

This report examines U.S. Army security cooperation (SC) processes in the Pacific Command area of responsibility to forge stronger links between strategic and tactical levels in the planning and execution of SC activities. Researchers developed a framework to link tactical-level SC activities with strategic goals and found ways to identify information requirements for units executing SC activities and improve evaluations of SC events.

This report reviews the extent to which the Army has implemented the actions directed by the Army Total Force Policy, issued in 2012. In general, the Army has made progress in integrating the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and U.S. Army Reserve, but budget constraints have limited implementation of some objectives. We recommend that the Army continue to develop innovative solutions and set goals and metrics to monitor progress.

This report identifies emerging policy lessons regarding the use of, and reforms to, the U.S. Army's Reserve Components (RCs) as an operational reserve derived from analyses of their contributions to Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn, and other recent contingency operations. These lessons can be applied to sustain the readiness of the U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard in future contingencies.

Through an analysis of transnational criminal networks originating in South America, this report presents operational characteristics of these networks, strategic alliances they have established, and the multiple threats that they pose to U.S. interests and to the stability of the countries where they operate. It also identifies U.S. government policies and programs to counter these networks and examines the military's role in that context.

Over the past decade, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has taken steps to strengthen its ability to plan and coordinate the U.S. government s response to disasters, while the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has worked to improve its support to FEMA. This research reviews and analyzes how DoD and FEMA work together to plan and execute disaster response activities, and recommends areas for improvement."

Building the capacity of Afghan special operations forces (SOF) is a key goal of the United States and its coalition partners. This report summarizes key partnering practices and presents findings from SOF partnership case studies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia. The goal is to identify best practices to benefit the development of Afghan SOF, as well as for special operations partnerships beyond Afghanistan.