One aspect of war is often overlooked: how much do they cost and how are they funded. Funding Extended Conflicts develops a baseline on Federal spending for the two extended conflicts of the Cold War era, Korea and Vietnam, and compares them with the global war on terror, including current outlays for Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides wartime cases that offer recommendations on how to pay for future wars and focuses on the length of the tails of such spending, which are often omitted in the final analyses and distort funding estimates. Background chapters examine financing and budget issues as well as problems associated with defining the real cost of Korea, Vietnam, and the so-called long war against terrorism and are complemented by an assessment of the open-ended commitment to support homeland defense and conduct ongoing military operations in Southwest Asia. One aspect of war is often overlooked: how much do they cost and how are they funded. Funding Extended Conflicts develops a baseline on Federal spending for the two extended conflicts of the Cold War era, Korea and Vietnam, and compares them with the global war on terror, including current outlays for Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides wartime cases that offer recommendations on how to pay for future wars and focuses on the length of the tails of such spending, which are often omitted in the final analyses and distort funding estimates. Background chapters examine financing and budget issues as well as problems associated with defining the real cost of Korea, Vietnam, and the so-called long war against terrorism and are complemented by an assessment of the open-ended commitment to support homeland defense and conduct ongoing military operations in Southwest Asia.

Richard M. Miller Jr., is a serving officer in the U.S. Navy with extensive background in budget issues who most recently worked as a congressional analyst for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A distinguished graduate of the National War College and the Naval War College, Commander Miller is a winner of the B. Franklin Reinauer Defense Economics Prize. In addition, he was a Federal Executive Fellow in the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy at Boston University.