Reports
Showing 1-20 of 119 Publications
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Integration for Innovation
Executive Summary In August 2023, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks made a clear case that the Department of Defense (DoD) must do better in “creat[ing] and exploit[i...
By Michael Brown, Ellen Lord, Andrew Metrick & Robert O. Work
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Drone Proliferation Dataset
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) Drone Proliferation Dataset tracks global transfers of military-grade aerial drones, regardless of size and capability, between 1...
By Molly Campbell
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Over the Brink
A new era of nuclear deterrence is taking shape in the Indo-Pacific theater. As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) dramatically expands and modernizes its nuclear arsenal, t...
By Andrew Metrick, Philip Sheers & Stacie Pettyjohn
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Swarms over the Strait
The United States is betting that it can out-innovate China and use drones to defeat a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invasion of Taiwan. Here, the United States should view U...
By Stacie Pettyjohn, Hannah Dennis & Molly Campbell
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Space to Grow
In the more than 50 years since the first satellite launch, space has become irrevocably intertwined with the American way of life and the American way of war. During the Cold...
By Hannah Dennis
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Evolution Not Revolution
This report concludes that drones have transformed the battlefield in the war in Ukraine, but in an evolutionary rather than revolutionary fashion. While tactical innovation a...
By Stacie Pettyjohn
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“DIU 3.0”
Rapid technological change touches virtually every aspect of life today. This includes defense and national security, and for good reason: To maintain the world’s strongest mi...
By Douglas A. Beck
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Rolling the Iron Dice
Executive Summary The prospect of a Sino-American war looms on the horizon. No scenario for such a conflict has garnered more interest than the potential invasion of Taiwan b...
By Andrew Metrick
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Campaign of Denial
The United States faces an unprecedented challenge: simultaneously deterring large-scale conventional aggression by two nuclear-armed powers. The nation will need to deter the...
By Becca Wasser
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“Production Is Deterrence”
This report explores whether the fiscal year (FY) 2024 U.S. defense budget request for key conventional precision-guided munitions (PGMs) aligns with the 2022 National Defense...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Hannah Dennis
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Buying Time
Discussions about defense strategy that focus on combat units and fail to account for logistics are irrelevant when it comes to understanding how well the United States can de...
By Chris Dougherty
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Avoiding the Brink
The United States is entering an unprecedented multipolar nuclear era that is far more complex and challenging than that of the Cold War. This report examines potential trigge...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Hannah Dennis
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No I in Team
The United States faces a strategic landscape unlike anything it has encountered in its recent history. It faces a rising great power in China, a diminished but still dangerou...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Becca Wasser
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Precision and Posture: Defense Spending Trends and the FY23 Budget Request
This report examines the fiscal year (FY) 2023 defense budget request and assesses whether it sufficiently resources what was known of the Biden administration’s national defe...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Hannah Dennis
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Dangerous Straits: Wargaming a Future Conflict over Taiwan
Until recently, U.S. policymakers and subject matter experts have viewed the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) forcible unification with Taiwan as a distant threat. But the...
By Stacie Pettyjohn, Becca Wasser & Chris Dougherty
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Long Shadows: Deterrence in a Multipolar Nuclear Age
This report examines the nuclear policies and postures of the United States and its three primary nuclear adversaries: China, Russia, and North Korea. It concludes that the wo...
By Stacie Pettyjohn & Jennie Matuschak
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Risk and Responsibility
Washington is reimagining its global role, leading the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to make difficult choices about priorities, resources, and risk to better address the l...
By Becca Wasser & Jennie Matuschak
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When the Chips Are Down
The United States is in a strategic competition with a well-resourced and capable opponent. China seeks a global role that is broadly at odds with the strategic interests and ...
By Becca Wasser, Martijn Rasser & Hannah Kelley
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The Poison Frog Strategy
How could Taiwan and the United States respond if China seized one of Taiwan’s outlying islands, such as Pratas/Dongsha (hereafter Dongsha) in the South China Sea? Whereas the...
By Chris Dougherty, Jennie Matuschak & Ripley Hunter
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Improving Joint Operational Concept Development within the U.S. Department of Defense
For the first time in nearly four decades, the DoD is developing joint warfighting concepts designed to counter advanced military rivals—specifically China and Russia. The las...
By Paul Benfield & Greg Grant