Defense 360

Public national security strategy documents tend to avoid making tradeoffs and inflate threats to the country, writes Ben Friedman. Eliminating these documents may not only make for better strategy but also better analysis and debate on U.S. national security policy.

As the services now face an unprecedented recruitment crisis, there’s a temptation to rely on traditional, seemingly time-tested solutions to help the services meet recruitment targets. But relying on such traditional approaches is an insufficient and ineffective means of addressing the current challenge.

The instinct to compare Ukraine and Taiwan is understandable, and there are critical lessons to be drawn from the war in Ukraine, but the parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan should not be overdrawn.

The defense community needs to manage expectations on PPBE reform and the degree to which it can improve commercial technology adoption, writes Jonathan Wong.

The 2022 NDS aims to “strengthen U.S. deterrence” to defend the status quo against America’s adversaries. But this strategy neglects the limits of deterrence. Instead, U.S. defense strategy should embrace an expanded concept of integrated influence with a broader focus on coercion and persuasion.

DoD has recently made efforts to improve the speed of innovation in defense, creating new organizations intended to improve innovation. But continuing down this path of “innovation theater” does little to change how the defense enterprise operates and adopts innovative ideas and technologies.

A roundup of the recent developments in the military’s response to Covid-19 by the CSIS International Security Program.

In this article for the Represent series, Stevan Molinar, a former U.S. Army Infantry Officer, highlights the deep history and interconnectedness of the U.S. education system and military and argues why affirmative action is necessary for the diversity and success of the U.S. military.

A roundup of the recent developments in the military’s response to Covid-19 by the CSIS International Security Program.