Quadrennial defense review a sideshow so far.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Defense Insider

The Pentagon bureaucracy, under normal circumstances, by now would be fully mobilized in preparation for a congressionally mandated study that the Defense Department must conduct every four years.

The 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, the fifth such study since Congress first directed it in 1997, must forecast what the military will be doing over the next 20 years and what size force would be needed to carry out those missions.

But with the Pentagon paralyzed by a budget impasse, the QDR is stuck in pause. A leadership change at the Defense Department also casts additional uncertainty into how the Pentagon will tackle the QDR.

As a result, analysts predict, the 2014 review is likely to be more of an administrative exercise than a true roadmap to the future.

It remains to be seen whether the QDR this year is going to be consequential, said Maj. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the Marine Corps' representative to the quadrennial...