ABSTRACT
US policymakers on both sides of the political aisle emphasize the importance of employing a wide range of domestic and international tools-including defense, diplomacy and public diplomacy, foreign assistance, intelligence, and homeland security-to make the country secure and advance its international interests and policies. During the current decade, the United States has increased funding in all of those areas. Including the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined spending for national security, including national defense, international affairs, and homeland security, was more than threequarters of a trillion dollars in fiscal year (FY) 2009, about 80 percent more in real terms than in FY 2001. Spending for national security constitutes nearly 20 percent of total federal outlays and more than 5 percent of US gross domestic product. The Department of Defense (DOD), Department of State, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) account for most of the total. Homeland security activities are widely dispersed across the federal government, however, so nearly every department and independent agency has some share of the national security total.
