Center For Defense Information

The Center for Defense Information was founded in 1972 by retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Gene La Rocque. The CDI is dedicated to:

• strengthening national and international security through international cooperation;
• reducing reliance on unilateral military power to resolve conflict;
• reducing reliance on nuclear weapons;
• transforming and reforming the U.S. military establishment; and
• prudent oversight of defense programs.

Currently operating under the aegis of the World Security Institute, it is composed of academics and high-ranking retired U.S. military officers who conduct critical analyses of U.S. defense and security policy.

The CDI regularly publishes the "Defense Monitor". The group also maintains a website that includes information about terrorist activity.

After the 2008 U.S. elections, the 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.

Winslow T. Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at CDI, expects costs for the F-35 Lightning II to significantly increase, in one example of the positions he has taken on military weapons systems. The reform project is funded by Philip A. Straus Jr., a photographer, and family. Wheeler, a former U.S. Senate and Government Accounting Office staffer, is a periodic contributor to CounterPunch's on-line site, among other publications.

The Center for Defense Information now exists in a research capacity as a component of the larger World Security Institute.