The Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) Reform asked RAND for an independent analysis of PPBE-like functions in selected countries and other U.S. federal agencies comparable to the U.S. Department of Defense. This executive summary distills key insights from seven case studies of budgeting processes, as detailed in two companion volumes, and compiles findings from all 16 case studies in the seven-volume series.

The Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) Reform asked the RAND Corporation for an independent analysis of PPBE-like functions in selected countries and non-Department of Defense federal agencies. This executive summary distills key insights from nine case studies of budgeting processes across comparative organizations, as detailed in three companion volumes.

The information age has transformed society by allowing people to interact digitally, yet it enables motivated actors to use mass influence to further their political objectives. The struggle against disinformation requires an appreciation of how a disinformation effect can be achieved in order to counter it. We consider the nature of disinformation and its use in the hybrid warfare domain, before examining the problem through frames of planning approach, truth theory, systems thinking, and military strategy. These approaches are informative in developing counter-strategies and we specifically identify the concept of kill chains as a useful framework to assist in the disinformation challenge.

Australia's 2020 Defence Strategic Update calls for increased weapon inventories across the Australian Defence Force, and the authors of this report describe the relevance of five international case studies to Australia in relation to the creation of a Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise. Comparable enterprises in Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Canada and Norway are reviewed to identify the most relevant aspects of each country's experience and its lessons for the development of an Australian Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise. The examination provided is not meant to enumerate a list of definitive recommendations based on similar experiences in other countries but rather to highlight areas for consideration and broad early insights (or 'overall lessons') for the Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise. To support ongoing enterprise deliberations, the authors craft a framework for the enterprise, based on established best practices. The authors draw seven lessons for establishing a Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise. First and foremost is the need for such an enterprise to be bespoke to the Australian domestic and strategic context. Recognition of the complexity of creating such an enterprise is also crucial. The remaining lessons focus heavily on ensuring sustainable economic conditions for a sovereign enterprise, as well as prioritising partnerships and collaborations. Book jacket.

"Recent RAND analysis of planning, programming, budgeting, and execution (PPBE) reform in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) comes at a time when the critical significance of allied and partner relationships in deterring and responding to global security threats has become increasingly apparent. There is also a renewed emphasis on deepening U.S. technology cooperation with like-minded nations. Foremost among these efforts--and the most ambitious--is the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) trilateral security partnership. AUKUS aims not only to deliver new shared technologies that will enhance the military capabilities of the three partner nations but also to integrate their underlying defense sectors. Such technology cooperation and international defense-industrial integration could contribute to integrated deterrence through enhanced collaboration, innovation, interoperability, collective military capability, and industrial capacity. Pursuing a strategy of integrated deterrence that relies on stronger, more-interoperable capabilities, greater technology cooperation, and deeper industrial ties has enormous implications for the PPBE-like processes within these countries. Australia, the UK, and the United States will need to align their national resource allocation processes with their international strategy and shared vision to achieve the goals exemplified by AUKUS. This paper addresses the implications of stronger allied cooperation for the reform of both DoD's PPBE processes and the comparative processes of U.S. allies and partners, particularly the members of the AUKUS security partnership."--Publisher's description.

Sharing and exploitation of information resources across a diverse organisation can confer a significant competitive advantage but also can be a substantial challenge in coordinating across structural and specialisation boundaries. This challenge reflects the difficulties traditionally associated with lateral relations, which were recognised by classical organisational theorists but are more pronounced with the emergence of information as a critical resource. Notwithstanding the benefits of information sharing across the organisation, the classical concept of specialisation remains fundamental to organisational theory; thus there is potential for friction between requirements for specialisation and coordination. This research therefore examines information management arrangements to balance specialisation and coordination in a diverse organisation. The research takes advantage of organisational and systems theory literature to appreciate complex information management requirements in terms of differentiation/cohesion and integration/coupling of organisational elements. Information management's business and technology perspectives define the conceptual framework, within which gaps in the literature are identified and become the focus of the research. The two key research areas are the opportunities enabled by technology for business integration through collaborative decision-making and the management of organisation-wide information technology infrastructure. Collaborative decision-making is an integrating mechanism that can provide balance between specialisation and coordination contingent upon the nature of decision tasks and their organisational context. Propositions associated with an adaptive approach to collaborative decision-making were tested in laboratory experiments, with positive support for the contingency model albeit constrained by individual cognitive variances. Organisations increasingly are adopting centralised approaches to the provision of IT services, with IT governance as an integrating mechanism and a need for multiple business-IT alignments to add value according to the differentiation required by organisational elements. Propositions relating to the adaptation of IT management arrangements based upon organisational characteristics were tested using a multi- iv -discipline approach, which resulted in support for the model although practical difficulties were experienced in the action research component. This research provides a framework for maintaining effective variety of information capabilities commensurate with the diverse organisation's mission and environment, while also exploiting the synergies and economies of shared information resources for holistic benefits.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process is a key enabler for DoD to fulfill its mission. But in light of a dynamic threat environment, increasingly capable adversaries, and rapid technological changes, there has been increasing concern that DoD's resource planning processes are too slow and inflexible to meet warfighter needs. As a result, Congress mandated the formation of a legislative commission to (1) examine the effectiveness of the PPBE process and adjacent DoD practices, particularly with respect to defense modernization; (2) consider potential alternatives to these processes and practices to maximize DoD's ability to respond in a timely manner to current and future threats; and (3) make legislative and policy recommendations to improve such processes and practices for the purposes of fielding the operational capabilities necessary to outpace near-peer competitors, providing data and analytical insight, and supporting an integrated budget that is aligned with strategic defense objectives. The Commission on PPBE Reform asked RAND to provide an independent analysis of PPBE-like functions in selected other countries and other federal agencies. In this report--Volume 5 in a seven-volume set of case studies--RAND researchers analyze the defense budgeting processes of five additional allied and partner nations: France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and Sweden. Relative to the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada (considered in Volume 2), the cases in this volume are more varied and have some notable differences from the United States.

In this second volume of four reports examining nine case studies of defense budgeting processes across comparative organizations, RAND researchers conducted case studies of the budgeting processes of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.