This book offers a systematic guide to the allocation of American taxpayer dollars used to provide for the common defense. With engaging and illustrative examples like the narrative of a helicopter purchase, it reveals an unexpectedly chaotic political process that produces a conversely stable aggregate defense budget. The book explores specific attempts to control or influence these turbulent funding outcomes as Congress reviews the Presidential budget request. Containing data and sources largely unavailable to researchers without access to the Department of Defense, the book should be of interest to anyone looking for a direct, current, and methodical analysis of defense budget outcomes that preserves the informal and nuanced mechanics of a political and complicated process.

The presence of a technologically superior defense industrial base has been a foundation of U.S. strategy since 1945. While the implementation of the budget cuts in the Budget Control Act of 2011 has caused concerns for the industrial base, the resulting debate has been lacking in empirical analysis. The purpose of this research is to measure the impact of the current defense drawdown across all the tiers of the industrial base. This report analyzes prime and subprime Defense Department contract data to measures the impacts of the drawdown by sector to better understand how prime and subprime contractors have responded to this external market shock.

Reviews means of employing defense contract and procurement mechanisms to improve economies in regions with chronic unemployment.

Composed with a touch of the panache of a former advertising copywriter, Kelso challenges readers to reflect on the social impact of advertising from multiple angles. The book uniquely combines personal anecdotes with a penetrating look at some of the most critical perspectives toward the field advanced by media scholars. A play on David Ogilvy’s legendary Confessions of an Advertising Man, the text disrupts the creative guru’s account with a highly accessible critique of advertising suitable for classes in disciplines as various as cultural studies, marketing, media studies, political science, and sociology. The book reflects the latest industry trends, especially the migration from legacy to social media vehicles like Instagram and Snapchat. Topics covered include a brief history of modern advertising in the United States, advertising’s influence on the so-called non-advertising content of the media, the ideological themes advertising inadvertently delivers, how advertising can privilege or marginalize various social constructions of identity, the controversial practice of targeting children, and how corporations often use advertising to superficially present a positive face while masking their profoundly darker sides. Incorporating a media-literacy approach, Kelso also offers an insider’s overview of the typical procedures advertising agencies take in strategizing, conceptualizing, and delivering campaigns.