On this Washington Roundtable episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast, sponsored by Bell, our guests are Dov Zakheim, PhD, former DoD comptroller, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Arnold Punaro, the chairman of the National Defense Industrial Association and CEO of the Punaro Group consultancy, Bob Hale, former Pentagon comptroller, Byron Callan of the independent equity research firm Capital Alpha Partners and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute.

Topics:

— A look at whether the Biden administration’s 2022 defense spending request aligns with the aim of better deterring China

— How the administration is working with Pacific allies and partners to improve collective security

— China and the region 32 years after the Tiananmen Square crackdown and massacre

— Key takeaways from the $715 billion defense budget request

— Whether Congress will step in to change the administration’s plan and support unfunded priorities

— The need for better Biden administration messaging regarding national security and the need for change — at home and aboard

— Update on what’s next as Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid and Mansour Abbas work to form a new government to replace Benjamin Netanyahu and his government