Recent Publications

War with China: A View from Early 2024
April 11, 2024 — US defense analysts are overdue for a fundamental reassessment of the strategic factors that would shape a future Sino-American war. The United States may lower the overall risk of sparking a war between Washington and Beijing by more formally committing advanced US capabilities in intelligence collection and targeting, long-range fires, and theater air and missile defense to Japan and South Korea and by initiating bilateral planning to introduce such capabilities in Taiwan in the future. The US defense community still lacks a broad and integrated national strategy for successfully managing the rivalry with China. A clear-eyed assessment of a possible United States-China war could lead to a national strategy... MORE

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Deterrence Gap: Avoiding War in the Taiwan Strait - Part 1
April 11, 2024 — The likelihood China will attack Taiwan in the next decade is high and will continue to be so, unless Taipei and Washington take urgent steps to restore deterrence across the Taiwan Strait. This monograph introduces the concept of interlocking deterrents, explains why deterrents lose their potency with the passage of time, and provides concrete recommendations for how Taiwan... MORE

A Baseline Assessment of the PLA Army's Border Reinforcement Operations in the Aksai Chin in 2020 and 2021
April 9, 2024 — This report analyzes the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) border reinforcement operation throughout the Aksai Chin and adjacent areas from summer 2020 to early 2021. It is based largely on analysis of Google Earth imagery and provides a baseline for further analysis of the PLA deployment along the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Aksai Chin. Chinese Army units appear ready to remain in a defensive posture near the LAC the Aksai Chin indefinitely. ... MORE

Strategy as Problem-Solving
April 9, 2024 — This article proposes a new definition of strategy as problem-solving that challenges the focus on goals and assumptions of order within many post–Cold War approaches to strategy. It argues that the military needs strategy to diagnose the complex problems of the twenty-first century before they can be solved. Inspired by practitioners such as Andrew Marshall and George F. Kennan, this new definition clarifies what strategists do and offers a logic for distinguishing the use of the term strategy. Practitioners will also find problem-solving tools and pedagogies they can adopt today. ... MORE

75 years in, NATO Remains As Vital As Ever to American Life
April 4, 2024 — As NATO marks 75 years since its founding, there are serious questions among some Americans who doubt the value of the trans-Atlantic alliance. They argue that it’s anachronistic, full of burden-sharing slackers and insufficiently focused on America’s main adversary, China.These critiques are to some degree understandable. NATO’s age obscures the... MORE

As NATO marks 75 years since its founding, there are serious questions among some Americans who doubt the value of the trans-Atlantic alliance. They argue that it’s anachronistic, full of burden-sharing slackers and insufficiently focused on America’s main adversary, China.
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4572959-75-years-in-nato-remains-as-vital-as-ever-to-american-life/

At 75, NATO Is Still Worth the Price
April 4, 2024 — Despite achieving notable successes over its seventy-five years of existence, NATO today faces a major challenge. A change in the United States’ commitment could spell the demise of the alliance.The North Atlantic Alliance should justifiably mark the seventy-fifth year since its founding, but this may not be the time to pop champagne corks.NATO has... MORE

Despite achieving notable successes over its seventy-five years of existence, NATO today faces a major challenge. A change in the United States’ commitment could spell the demise of the alliance.

“Toward a Strategic Art for Sanctions”
April 2, 2024 — New strategic art is required to maneuver political economies to meet the demands of future engagements and campaigns. Current discussions of the projection of political-economic power are typically abstract, high-level, and policy-focused or present singular tactical actions as strategic actions, creating a gap for campaign practitioners. This article addresses the gap by drawing on Joint Planning, Joint Publication 5-0, and Joint Campaigns and Operations, Joint Publication 3-0, to further develop the concept and methodologies first introduced in the author’s earlier article “Multidimensionality: Rethinking Power Projection for the 21st Century.” ... MORE

Research Handbook on NATO "Collective Defense"
March 28, 2024 — Collective defense is back at center stage for NATO. This is primarily due to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, its illegal annexation of Crimea, and the subsequent and more brutal second invasion of 2022, all of which prompted NATO to fundamentally reassess how it provided security to its members states. Since then, the alliance has had to... MORE

Research Handbook on NATO "Collective Defense" by John R. Deni
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/research-handbook-on-nato-9781839103384.html

New Technologies and Emerging Trends in the Indo-Pacific
March 27, 2024 — In this inaugural episode of CLSC Dialogues: Landpower in the Indo-Pacific, Lieutenant General Xavier T. Brunson, the commanding general of I Corps and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, retired Major General Mick Ryan of the Australian Army, and Colonel Rich Butler, director of the China Landpower Studies Center, discuss new technologies and emerging trends in the Indo-Pacific. ... MORE

Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine
March 27, 2024 — Strategy | Book Review: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to UkraineAuthor: Anna Arutunyan | Reviewed by Dr. Sarah Lohmann, teaching faculty, University of Washington | Dr. Sarah Lohmann, editor of What Ukraine Taught NATO about Hybrid Warfare (US Army War College Press, 2022), calls Anna Arutunyan's latest book, Hybrid Warriors, a... MORE

Dr. Sarah Lohmann, editor of What Ukraine Taught NATO about Hybrid Warfare (US Army War College Press, 2022), calls Anna Arutunyan's latest book, Hybrid Warriors, a "must-read for senior members of the US defense community" that "encourages strategists to think beyond segmented operations to ensure Russia's broad defeat."

Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
March 27, 2024 — Strategy | Book Review: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to UkraineAuthors: David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts | Reviewed by Dr. John A. Nagl, professor of warfighting studies, US Army War College | Dr. John A. Nagl provides readers a roadmap to navigate—and a lens with which to interpret—General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts's... MORE

Dr. John A. Nagl provides readers a roadmap to navigate—and a lens with which to interpret—General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts's best-selling book, Conflict, which Nagl considers "'[t]he closest thing to a memoir" of Petraeus and "likely . . . the best first-person account in history of [Petraeus's] efforts and results in Iraq and Afghanistan that made him the most important Army officer of his generation."

The War in Nicaragua
March 27, 2024 — Review Essay | Book Review: The War in NicaraguaAuthor: William Walker | Review essay by Colonel Joerg Stenzel, instructor, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations, US Army War College | Colonel Joerg Stenzel (German Army), an instructor at the US Army War College, lends his expertise in strategy to this review of "the most famous... MORE

Colonel Joerg Stenzel (German Army), an instructor at the US Army War College, lends his expertise in strategy to this review of "the most famous and successful" filibuster featured in William Walker's 1860 work, The War in Nicaragua.