Defense Finance Lessons From the Napoleonic Wars

Defense Finance Lessons From the Napoleonic Wars
Napoléon Bonaparte. Musée Carnavalet via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
Luke Widenhouse
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Commentary
When discussing American military spending and defense industrial base policy in the context of great power competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it has become common to hark back to World War II and the “Arsenal of Democracy.” However, the unfortunate reality is that the United States is unlikely to be capable of perfectly replicating the economic and industrial marvel that it pulled off in World War II, when it spent roughly 40 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. This is particularly true because any conflict with the CCP is likely to be protracted, which demands spending that can sustain the military over a long period.
Luke Widenhouse
Luke Widenhouse
Author
Luke Widenhouse is a research assistant at the Yorktown Institute and senior at St. John's College in Annapolis, Md.