The Center for Defense Information (CDI) is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

organization based in

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It specialized in analyzing and advising on military matters.

History

The Center for Defense Information was founded in 1971 by an independent group of retired military officers including Adm. Gene La Rocque and Adm. Eugene Carroll. In 2005, the Center for Defense Information expanded by creating the Straus Military Reform Project for the purpose of promoting military reform in the Pentagon and Congress. Winslow T. Wheeler, a former Capitol Hill staffer and General Accounting Office assistant director, directs the Straus Military Reform Project at CDI. The Project was launched by a matching grant from Philip A. Straus Jr. Straus and his family have long supported activities at CDI and continue to be major supporters of the Project's endeavors. In May 2012, CDI joined the

Project on Government Oversight The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, that investigates and works to expose waste, fraud, abuse, and conflicts of interest in the U.S. federal government. According to its webs ...

. After the 2008 United States elections, CDI released ''America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress'', a collection of briefing papers by a dozen defense intellectuals and retired military officers. In 2010, CDI released a second anthology, ''The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You through It''. Since the mid-2000s, CDI has focused on the

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...

as what it says is the embodiment of the Pentagon's acquisition problems—being both unaffordable and a huge disappointment in performance. Formerly, CDI operated under the umbrella of the World Security Institute. In 2012, the World Security Institute closed, and CDI merged with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). In addition, POGO continued the publication of ''The Defense Monitor''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. 1971 establishments in the United States