Center for a New American Security

In this policy brief, CNAS Senior Fellow Tom Ricks argues that U.S. and Iraqi policymakers should go back to the drawing board and find a solution that prevents Iraq from unraveling, and  recommends the Obama Administration signal to Iraqi leaders that the United States is open to re-negotiating the Status of Forces Agreement.

Using the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program as a case study, this  report analyzes how globalization has affected the American defense industry and its consequences for U.S. national security.

This report provides an analysis of the nature of U.S. military officership in a new strategic environment and provides recomendations for how the United States can keep its edge in the officer corps amidst an ever-increasing array of challenges.

The upcoming congressional testimony of President Obama's national security team on Afghanistan may be the most pivotal since September 2007. Upon the President's announcement to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, President John Nagl and CNAS Senior Fellow Richard Fontaine lay out five key questions to consider.

CNAS President Dr. John Nagl testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at 2:30pm, in Room 419 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Dr. Nagl will discuss U.S. strategy in Afghanistan at the hearing called by SFRC Chairman, Senator Kerry, "Exploring Three Strategies for Afghanistan."

To counter the threat from violent Islamist extremism more effectively, the Center for a New American Security launched a strategy development process modeled after President Eisenhower’s Project Solarium.

April 2009 - Eight years of war have given the U.S. military an unparalleled opportunity to translate real war experience into a vision of how conflicts will be fought in the future. Getting a vision of the future more right than wrong depends on the military’s ability to sift through experiences gathered from combat to discern those that will endure. This monograph seeks to do just that.

March 17, 2009 - David Kilcullen is one of the world's most influential experts on counterinsurgency and modern warfare. A Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, his vision of war dramatically influenced America's decision to rethink its military strategy in Iraq and implement "the surge."

The State of the US Ground Forces, addresses the challenges our ground forces face after five years of engagement such as current deployment pace, recruiting standards and recommendations as we move forward.

The next American president will inherit an overseas military base realignment process begun in the first term of the George W. Bush administration. This realignment, guided by an effort known as the Global Posture Review (GPR), was perhaps former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld s chief intellectual and policy accomplishment during his six-year tenure at the Pentagon. Unlike his likely warfighting legacy, particularly in regard to Iraq, the GPR is on generally sound conceptual foundations. But a successful outcome for the Global Posture Review, roughly halfway implemented as of early 2008, will depend on the next U.S. administration refining numerous rough edges of the current plan and redefining the broader national security policy context in which any base realignment will inevitably be viewed.