On Friday 27 March 2006, Mr James P Thomas (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Resources and Plans, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, US) addressed Members of the Institute on “The Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR): Implications for Asia”. Organised by IISS-Asia, the event took place at Prestige Room, 9 Raffles Place, Level 57 Republic Plaza.
Synopsis:
The US Department of Defense recently completed the Congressionally-mandated Quadrennial Defense Review, a comprehensive strategic appraisal, which addresses the imperative of continuing the reorientation of US military forces and capabilities for current operations as well as for more uncertain future challenges. Mr Thomas, the principal author of the QDR report to Congress, provided an overview of the QDR and the strategic direction it sets out.
Since 2004, Mr Thomas has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Resources and Plans. He is responsible for the major strategic planning functions within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In 2005, he helped to orchestrate the activities of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and was the principal author of the Report. Mr Thomas is also responsible for the preparation of guidance for war plans and the development of the defense planning scenarios. Prior to his current appointment, he served as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-04).
Mr Thomas entered the Department of Defense as a career civil servant in 1993. He previously served in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, spearheading a counterproliferation initiative at NATO and formulating policy guidance to address asymmetric threats in the 1997 QDR (1995-98). In 1998, he was detailed to the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, where he wrote The Military Challenges of Transatlantic Coalitions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Upon his return to the Pentagon in 1999, he joined the Strategy office, where he helped develop the 2001 defense strategy, framework for assessing risk, force planning construct, and approach to transformation.
Prior to entering government service, he was an analyst at Los Alamos National Laboratory and research assistant to Ambassador Paul H. Nitze. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a reserve Naval officer.
