| Summary: | By statute, the Department of Defense (DOD) is required, by Section 118, Title 10, U.S. Code, to submit to Congress a report based on its most recent Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) process, no later than the President submits his budget request for Fiscal Year 2015. The "2014 QDR" review process took place against the backdrop of key changes in the global strategic context, recent evolutions in U.S. strategic priorities, and a tighter fiscal context. The 2014 process also drew on a series of recent reviews and guidance documents -- a 2011 DOD "comprehensive review" initially launched by Secretary of Defense Gates and continued by Secretary of Defense Panetta; the January 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance document (DSG), and the 2013 review process known as the Strategic Choices and Management Review (SCMR). In evaluating the 2014 QDR report and current defense strategy more broadly, Congress may choose to consider a number of issues: the role of the United States on the world stage; changes and trajectories in the global security environment; DOD's mission and geographic priorities; the extent and nature for U.S. global military presence; the extent and nature of U.S. international military partnerships; the strategic rationale for deterrence; the force planning construct (FPC), a shorthand statement of the number and type of missions the force is expected to be able to accomplish simultaneously, which is used to shape and size the force; the division of labor among Military Services and components in executing the strategy; and, the nature and extent of the risks that defense strategy assumes.
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