Our Work

We believe that the primary task for our generation is to build a new American strategy attuned to the pressing realities of our time. This framework must be comprehensive of the major regions and dimensions of U.S. power and interests. It must also be willing to challenge established wisdom and inertia in U.S. national security policy and related fields.

Two Fronts, One Goal: Euro-Atlantic Security in the Indo-Pacific Age

Luis Simón, Daniel Fiott, and Octavian Manea

This paper outlines how Europe can contribute to alleviating the “two-front” predicament in U.S. global strategy. It shows how Europeans can help free up the United States’ strategic bandwidth in Europe so as to enable a proper U.S. prioritization of China without weakening Europe’s deterrence architecture. The paper also shows how Europeans can contribute to U.S.-led efforts to uphold deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.
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Resourcing the Strategy of Denial: Optimizing the Defense Budget in Three Alternative Futures

by Austin J. Dahmer

This study identifies the priority military forces and capabilities for the strategy of denial, identifies what extant forces and capabilities could be de-prioritized, and simulates three defense budgets under this rubric over the five-year defense planning period known as the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP).
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Classics and Strategy

by Jakub Grygiel 

Classic texts – whether by Roman historians such as Tacitus or Greek tragedians such as Aeschylus or Florentine diplomats such as Francesco Guicciardini – give us important, and even unusual, insights into strategy. They certainly do not supply a ready-made strategy that could be applied to a specific security problem we face now. But they can open for us new or forgotten ways of thinking about threats and the competitive security environment, offering a perspective that is missing in modern intellectual and educational circles. Free of technical jargon and without abstractions, classics favor simplicity over simplification, privilege practical insights over abstraction, and elevate the role of individuals over impersonal trends and institutions. And they describe the motivations and the drivers behind men’s actions, the core of any strategy. This book brings back some of these classic writers, examining their thoughts on strategy and politics.
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The Strategy of Denial

by Elbridge Colby 

The most informed and in-depth reappraisal of America’s defense strategy in decades, this book outlines a rigorous but practical approach, showing how the United States can prepare to win a war with China that we cannot afford to lose—precisely in order to deter that war from happening.
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Sharing the Load: Developing Better Strategies for Burden Sharing

by Elbridge Colby with Robert Almelor Delfeld

The purpose of this study is to provide a strategic framework which the United States can use to lead to better burden sharing outcomes, in turn driving greater and more aligned efforts by Washington’s allies and partners.
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Building a Strategy for Escalation and War Termination

by Elbridge Colby and Yashar Parsie 

This paper examines the necessity for the United States to formulate a theory of success in a conflict over Taiwan that includes denial but also indicates how to favorably manage escalation – that is, achieving its strategic-political goals without, at a minimum, precipitating a massive attack on the United States.
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Statement of Elbridge A. Colby to the Special Committee on the Canada-China Relationship, House of Commons of Canada

by Elbridge Colby

Thank you very much for the invitation to testify. It is a great honor to be able to submit testimony to this important and timely Committee. Whether we like it or not, the world has now entered into an era of great power rivalry. While the United States and China are the two primary poles in this new old world, everyone – including Canada – will be profoundly affected.
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Zeitenwende – German Defence Policy in an Era of Great Power Conflict: Keynote Remarks

by Elbridge Colby

“The Zeitenwende is thus an historic and enormously commendable step by Germany, as it points in the direction of a truly collaborative solution to this global set of problems we as allies now face …”
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Strategic Sequencing: How Great Powers Avoid Multi-Front War

by A. Wess Mitchell

This paper examines how four great powers in history have handled simultaneity …
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Association of the United States Army LANPAC: Keynote Remarks

by Elbridge Colby

“Our empowerment, our bolstering of military efforts is focused on denial – a goal that is in the most basic sense defensive …”
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Economic Interdependence Will Not Deter U.S.-China War

by Christopher Vassallo

Economic ties linking the U.S. with China are insufficient to prevent a war …
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Realizing the Contact & Blunt Layers in Europe and Asia

by Elbridge Colby and Jakub Grygiel (with Yashar Parsie)

The purpose of this study is to provide a strategic framework for how the U.S. should think about and act toward allies and partners in an era defined by great power competition…
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September 19, 2023

Hou Youyi quietly met with former U.S. military and national security officials. The dinner scene of Washington D.C. was exposed”// 侯友宜悄密會美軍方、國安前官員 華府晚宴畫面曝光

TBS News Network/Yahoo | Hou Youyi, the presidential candidate of the Kuomintang, met with former government officials and military personnel such as the National Security Council,........
September 18, 2023

World Events Are Not Going America’s Way

The Spectator | There is a foreign policy strategy to manage this much more dangerous era, one proceeding from a sober-minded focus on our core national interests and prioritizing dealing with our prime great power rival, China......
September 14, 2023

Ukraine, Taiwan, and the Dawn of Great Power Competition

Heritage Foundation | On this episode, Peter is joined by Wess Mitchell, co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative who previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for Europe from 2017-2019....
September 14, 2023

Delfeld: The Military Strategy of ‘Deterrence by Denial,’ Rightly Understood

National Review | Strictly speaking, a strategy of deterrence by denial is about preventing a war in the Pacific, particularly over Taiwan, by first achieving a favorable balance of allied military power that will enable conditions for détente.......
September 14, 2023

In Ukraine, the focus is the fighting, but are negotiations possible?

NPR | Elbridge Colby, a former Pentagon official, supports U.S. help for Ukraine, though he thinks European nations should be in the lead. ........
September 9, 2023

First-term Trump defense official: “US diplomacy is not ‘charity’…// 트럼프 1기 국방관료 “美 외교는 ‘자선’ 아니다…

Chosun Ilbo | The United States is engaged in a 'global struggle' with China over the future of the world order,” said Elbridge Colby, a former deputy deputy deputy secretary of strategic power development.....
September 7, 2023

Photo Ops Aren’t the Same Strategy as Strength

Fox Business | Elbridge Colby speaks with ‘The Bottom Line’ on Fox Business regarding Biden heading to India for the G-20........
September 7, 2023

Washington Life: 2023 Power List

Washington Life | The top influencers and key decision makers of 2023 in Washington, including Elbridge Colby, who is featured on “The China Issue”......
September 6, 2023

What happens if this American gets power?// Was passiert, wenn dieser Amerikaner Macht bekommt?

Die Zeit | Hardness against China, out of Ukraine aid: How Elbridge Colby, formerly in the service of the Trump administration, is preparing for the next Republican presidency.....
September 5, 2023

Il Foglio: “’Asia first’ Republicans are a trouble for Ukraine” // I repubblicani “Asia first” sono un guaio per l’Ucraina

Il Foglio | China is the protagonist of the international system, not Russia,' says conservative Elbridge Colby // “La Cina è la protagonista del sistema internazionale, non la Russia”, dice il conservatore Elbridge Colby....