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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 …”
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 …
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 …”
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 …
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…
