Over the past 15 years, CNAS has shaped U.S. defense strategy and policy. Today, the United States must swiftly implement its defense strategy, develop innovative operational concepts, and undertake difficult institutional reforms to both meet the long-term challenges posed by great powers and short-term crises created by a diverse array of global actors. The CNAS Defense program addresses the central military challenges of today and tomorrow and assesses how to balance risk across time.
The Defense Program employs strategic, budgetary, and operational analysis and leverages innovative approaches such as wargaming to inform defense policy. We develop actionable policy recommendations on defense strategy, force structure, operations, and resourcing to help U.S. and allied leaders create needed change.
Highlights
-
Over the Brink
Reports
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
-
Swarms over the Strait
Reports
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
-
Integration for Innovation
Reports
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
