strategist
From Reaction to Action: Adopting a Competitive Posture in Cyber Diplomacy
Adversaries probe the United States and its allies daily in cyberspace. American cyber diplomacy has improved but still leaves the United States vulnerable to continuous, state-sponsored cyber aggression that is having strategic effects, even though that…
Wormhole Escalation in the New Nuclear Age
Increasingly capable and intrusive digital information technologies, advanced dual-use military capabilities, and diffused global power structures will reshape future crises and conflicts between nuclear-armed adversaries and challenge traditional ways of…
Applying Method to Madness: A User’s Guide to Causal Inference in Policy Analysis
Jessica Blankshain and Andrew Stigler attempt to make the analytical tools frequently used in social science research more “user friendly” by explaining what it means to investigate causality. By providing a reader's guide to social science and policy…
Economic Might, National Security, and the Future of American Statecraft
Given the many significant challenges America faces today — including high levels of debt, political discord, the rise of China, and the emergence of Asian economies as the drivers of global growth — what is the country's plan for preserving its…
One War Is Not Enough: Strategy and Force Planning for Great-Power Competition
What are the implications of the Department of Defense's adoption of a one-war standard that is focused on defeating a great-power rival? Hal Brands and Evan Braden Montgomery discuss the gap between America's global commitments and the military challenges it…
Coercion Theory: A Basic Introduction for Practitioners
While coercion theory may be well understood in the academy, it is less well understood by practitioners, especially in the military. This can cause difficulties in civil-military communications and cause problems for national strategy and military outcomes.…
What Went Wrong? U.S.-China Relations from Tiananmen to Trump
James Steinberg looks back at the relationship between the United States and China over the last 30 years and asks whether a better outcome could have been produced had different decisions been made.
Sense and Indispensability: American Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty
Former ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji, proposes a way forward for a renewed and sustainable American foreign policy. This would require a re-examination of America's interests, institutional reforms, and a revival of American ideals. To wit: reflection,…
What Is a Moral Foreign Policy?
How should we judge the morality of a president's foreign policy? Joseph Nye suggests a rubric that is based on a three-dimensional ethics of intentions, means, and consequences and that draws from realism, cosmopolitanism, and liberalism.
Thinking in Space: The Role of Geography in National Security Decision-Making
Being able to "think in space" is a crucial tool for decision-makers, but one that is often de-emphasized. In order to improve its ability to think in space, the national security community ought to objectively assess how effectively it is employing geographic…
To Regain Policy Competence: The Software of American Public Problem-Solving
American policymaking has declined over the past several decades, but it is something that can be regained. It is not ephemeral or lost to the mists of time. The skills needed to tackle public problem-solving are specific and cultural — and they are…
A Primer on Analyzing Nuclear Competitions
Bruce Sugden offers a nuclear primer for analysts studying nuclear competition, urging them to broaden the range of plausible “what if” questions around which their studies are structured.