ABSTRACT
Economic strategies determine the various ways in which national resources can be used and thus, they link economic and military objectives. The reasons the US builds weapons the way it does, and our decisions to use either nuclear or non-nuclear weapons, preclude certain strategies to allocate resources to defense. In addition, the difficulty of accurately forecasting future events makes developing specific long and short-term economic strategies an exercise in futility. Ideally, defense spending should follow a realistic and comprehensive defense strategy. Competing projects should be evaluated by how they contribute to the strategy, and money should be allocated accordingly. However, this is possible only when spending priorities are defined. Spending on nuclear weapons only to show a 'commitment' to some political entity such as North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or to provide economic support to some region of the United States, provides little indication of priorities.
