Articles & Multimedia
Showing 1-20 of 27 Publications
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An Open Letter on BRAC
Commentary
CNAS CEO Michèle Flournoy and Director of Studies Shawn Brimley signed a bipartisan open letter urging Congress to authorize a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round. The u...
By Michèle Flournoy & Shawn Brimley
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Getting the Pentagon’s Next National Defense Strategy Right
A small Pentagon team has started working on the next National Defense Strategy that, if properly scoped and staffed, will be an important tool for Secretary of Defense Jim Ma...
By Shawn Brimley
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Tips for Mattis on Navigating Swampland
When then President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had chosen Gen. Jim Mattis to lead the Pentagon, there was a collective sigh of relief across the national security es...
By Shawn Brimley
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For an Audience of One: Re-Booting Agenda SecDef
Since Jim Mattis accepted the role of secretary of defense, his proverbial rucksack has been loaded up with expectations: convincing President Trump that torture is not effect...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman, Shawn Brimley & Mara Karlin
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These Are Donald Trump’s Biggest Priorities as Commander-in-Chief
Donald Trump’s comments on national security topics both during and after his presidential campaign have been as confounding to Republican national security experts as they ha...
By Shawn Brimley
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Au Revoir QDR
Whatever version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) emerges from the House-Senate conference process later this year, it seems likely that the 20-year old Quadre...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Shawn Brimley
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Observations on Global Military Posture
The secretary of defense has outsized influence over America’s global network of bases, the number of military personnel stationed overseas, and the frequency of internation...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Shawn Brimley
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Escaping the No Man's Land of Defense Reform
Defense reform — frequently relegated to a no man’s land somewhere between wonkish dreams and third-rail issues — has reappeared as the issue du jour. Secretary of Defense Ash...
By Katherine Kidder, Loren DeJonge Schulman & Shawn Brimley
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Sustaining the Third Offset in the Next Administration
After more than a year of speeches, debate, and discussion (much of it curated here at War on the Rocks), the recent fiscal year 2017 (FY17) budget submission finally provides...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Shawn Brimley
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Agenda SECDEF: Crafting the Next Defense Strategy
When the next secretary of defense arrives in the Pentagon in January 2017, he or she must show up with a fairly well-developed agenda in order to properly seize the various l...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Shawn Brimley
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Introducing Agenda SecDef
One year from now, somewhere in a small suite of offices at the Pentagon, a team of civil servants, military officers, and a smattering of outside civilians will be hard at wo...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Shawn Brimley
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Reforming the National Security Council: What the Next President Needs to Know
Commentary
Last week, the Washington Post reported that the White House has just finished an extensive internal review and developed a plan to reshape the National Security Council (NSC)...
By Shawn Brimley, Julianne Smith & Jacob Stokes
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Can Obama Save the GCC Summit?
As President Barack Obama and the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sit down at Camp David this week, the White House’s goal is clear: reassure America’s Middle Ea...
By Ilan Goldenberg, Nicholas Heras & Shawn Brimley
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THE NAVY’S NEW MUSEUM DRONE AND STRATEGIC MALPRACTICE
Aviation history was made last week: an unmanned aircraft — the X-47B — successfully completed an air-to-air refueling demonstration, taking 4,000 pounds of fuel from a KC-707...
By Shawn Brimley
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Let’s Lock in the Rebalance to Asia
America’s rebalance to Asia is real today. Whether it endures as a permanent feature of U.S. foreign and defense policy very much depends on the next several years. A bit of m...
By Shawn Brimley & Jerry Hendrix
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Contesting China’s Facts on New Ground
China’s aggressive actions to contest its excessive territorial claims in the South China Sea received a welcome if worrisome dose of realism this month, as new satellite imag...
By Shawn Brimley
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Ash Carter: Invest in the 3rd Offset Strategy
Ashton Carter, the newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of Defense, will need to articulate his vision of how he intends to lead the Pentagon over the next two years. He would do ...
By Paul Scharre, Shawn Brimley & Jerry Hendrix
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Don’t Expect Too Much From Obama’s National Security Strategy
If there’s one notion that unites the national security community these days, it’s that the United States needs strategy. It needs a strategy for defeating the Islamic State, ...
By Richard Fontaine & Shawn Brimley
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Ash Carter Has One Shot To Keep the Pentagon’s Technology Edge
If confirmed as defense secretary, Ashton Carter will need all his abundant experience to tackle the major challenges the Pentagon faces in trying to maintain America’s milita...
By Elbridge Colby & Shawn Brimley
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THE STATE OF THE UNION: THE PRESIDENT STRUCK THE RIGHT TONE
I thought the president’s State of the Union address was well done. It was less a list of specific proposals than the SOTU often is (although there were some), and more an art...
By Shawn Brimley
