Recent Publications

Lieutenant General Robert C. Richardson Jr.: Central Pacific Theater Army Commander for Admiral Chester W. Nimitz 1943–45
July 11, 2024 — Lieutenant General Robert C. Richardson Jr. commanded US Army Forces in Central Pacific Area and US Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas. He served as de facto theater Army commander to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz from August 1943 to June 1945, executing the range of what are now the Army war-fighting and Joint functions... MORE

PODCAST: Chinese Strategy and Statecraft: Coercion and Competition in the Indo-Pacific
June 24, 2024 — What are the objectives of China’s foreign and security policies under Xi Jinping? What is the role of Australia and other middle powers in responding to Chinese actions in the Indo-Pacific? Are the United States’ China policies set to change with future shifts in the international order? In this episode, Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Dan... MORE

Chinese Strategy and Statecraft: Coercion and Competition in the Indo-Pacific•
Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Dan Blumenthal
The National Security Podcast

PODCAST: Paramilitaries Abroad: China’s Use of Nontraditional Security Forces
June 24, 2024 — Episode 107 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast examines how China uses its paramilitary and internal security forces to project power abroad and build global influence.Our guests begin by dissecting the Chinese security apparatus: contrasting the People’s Liberation Army with the CCP’s internal police forces and paramilitaries. They then explore how... MORE

Paramilitaries Abroad: China’s Use of Nontraditional Security Forces
Sheena Chestnut Greitens and LTG Charles W. Hooper
The Irregular Warfare Podcast

"Building a Purposeful Research Agenda”
June 18, 2024 — The China Landpower Studies Center Director Richard Butler and Joshua Arostegui, the center’s research director and chair, discuss the center’s research agenda. Previously, Butler outlined the center’s mission and how the research agenda answers large campaign questions across the perspectives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the United States, and US allies and partners. ... MORE

Playing Both Sides of the U.S.-Chinese Rivalry
May 29, 2024 — Why Countries Get External Security from Washington—and Internal Security from BeijingOn a visit to Budapest in late February, China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, secured a face-to-face meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to establish a new bilateral security arrangement. China and Hungary agreed to cooperate on law... MORE

Slide for Playing Both Sides of the U.S. Chinese Rivalry

Decisive Decade: PRC Global Strategy and the PLA as a Pacing Challenge – 2023 PLA Conference – Updated and Expanded
April 17, 2024 — The US Army War College’s 2023 Conference on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was held February 22 to 24, 2023, at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The conference, entitled “Decisive Decade: PRC Global Strategy and the PLA as Pacing Challenge,” featured presentations on PRC global and regional strategy, and the PLA’s enabling role by experts from a wide range of academic, media, and government agencies and organizations... MORE

Implications for Modern Warfighting Concepts: What the US Army Can Learn from Past Conflicts
March 22, 2024 — These four historic vignettes provide context and lessons learned for the US Army as it returns to peer conflict. Although history does not account for the cyber and space domains, the leaders involved in the highlighted conflicts dealt with the reintroduction of maneuver warfare tied to modern fires from land, sea, and air. Peer-level conflict also compelled governments to work intensely in the information space to steel... MORE

Implications for Modern Warfighting Concepts: What the US Army Can Learn from Past Conflicts | Richard D. Butler

Arming Allies and Partners: How Foreign Military Sales Can Change the China Problem
March 20, 2024 — Allies and partners are “a center of gravity” for the DoD National Defense Strategy in the Indo-Pacific. But are regional nations building military capacity to help the United States prepare for and deter a potential clash with the People’s Republic of China, or are they solely focused on defending their own territories? Although regional nations’ aims may often overlap, they also diverge... MORE

Arming Allies and Partners: How Foreign Military Sales Can Change the China Problem By Brennan Deveraux

China’s Security Engagement in Latin America and the Caribbean
February 26, 2024 — An overview of the characteristics and trends in China’s security engagement in the region, and how it is evolving. China’s activities in the security and defense sector in Latin America and the Caribbean are a small but strategically significant portion of its engagement with the region. Beijing has openly acknowledged its interest in engaging with the region on security matters in the 2008 and 2016... MORE

China’s Security Engagement in Latin America and the Caribbean
An overview of the characteristics and trends in China’s security engagement in the region, and how it is evolving.

Why North Korea Survives
February 20, 2024 — Here’s how the Kim regime has proven so resilient.North Korea’s recent jettisoning of reunification with South Korea as a national goal has raised much speculation about Pyongyang’s goals and strategy. Relatively overlooked in recent debates over whether the Kim regime might be preparing for war with South Korea—more than it is usually, anyway—is... MORE

Why North Korea Survives
Here’s how the Kim regime has proven so resilient.
Sheena Chestnut Greitens

CMSI Note #4: Deck Cargo Ships: Another Option for a Cross-Strait Invasion
February 14, 2024 — CMSI Perspectives and Key Take-Aways: In addition to RO-RO ferries, the PLA also uses another class of RO-RO ship, the deck cargo ship, in sea transport training exercises. Deck cargo ships are widely used in China’s ocean engineering and construction industry, constituting an existing and large-scale volume of lift capacity. The simple design and... MORE

CMSI Note #4: Deck Cargo Ships: Another Option for a Cross-Strait Invasion | Authors Conor M. Kennedy

The Mixed Message About China's Economy
February 8, 2024 — Chinese Premier Li Qiang spoke this week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, saying the Chinese economy was doing just fine. Signals out of Beijing have been conveying a different message.SHEENA CHESTNUT GREITENS: So I think that the idea that economic growth created the basis for stability for the Chinese Communist Party was the... MORE

The Mixed Message About China's Economy | NPR Podcast Appearance by Sheena Greitens