August 31, 2017
Getting to Ground Truth on the Elevation of U.S. Cyber Command
One of my biggest frustrations during my time in the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s cyber policy office was the way elevating U.S. Cyber Command became overhyped. Cyber Command was created as a subordinate command within the military’s premier nuclear deterrence command, U.S. Strategic Command. There were good historical reasons for this, but my analysis convinced me there was nothing Cyber Command could undertake if it became a unified command that it could not already do as a subordinate command. Yet as cyber operations became more prominent, the chorus grew to elevate it to its own, independent command. While I never found reason to oppose such a move, I did not think the benefits were all that remarkable. The more consequential question would be when and how to separate the leadership of Cyber Command from the National Security Agency.
Read the full op-ed in War on the Rocks.
More from CNAS
-
Video
Defense / Energy, Economics & Security
Defense Stocks Strain as Conflict WidensBecca Wasser and Chris Kennedy, adjunct senior fellows at the Center for a New American Security, join Bloomberg This Weekend to discuss the Iran War and the its impact on U.S...
By Becca Wasser & Chris Kennedy
-
Accelerate Production by Modernizing Acquisition
Commentary
Introduction The threats facing the United States and its allies today demand more than incremental improvements to defense capacity—they require a fundamentally different mod...
By Frank St. John
-
German Military Power Needs to Go It Alone
Commentary
But those who worry about a mighty Germany going it alone need to face an uncomfortable truth: NATO needs a powerful German military backed by the continent’s biggest economy ...
By Franz-Stefan Gady
-
U.S. Iran Talks Face Persistent Impasse
Bloomberg Economics analysts Becca Wasser and Dina Esfandiary say the U.S. and Iran remain far apart on key issues, with intermittent strikes and negotiations likely to define...
By Becca Wasser
