October 15, 2014
Offset Strategies & Warfighting Regimes
Today’s headlines are reinforcing the alarms sounded by defense policymakers and analysts warning of the perils of cuts to the defense budget, the blind meat-axe of sequestration, and the risks to America’s global position. From the cancerous spread of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to Iran’s intransigence on nuclear negotiations, to Russia’s invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, to China’s slow but steady push into contested areas of the East and South China Seas, the United States seems to be on its heels.
But there is a deeper competition afoot, one that goes beyond the daily tactical game of foreign policy maneuvering and diplomatic talking points. It is a game played out over decades, and it’s one that the United States could very well lose. It is a competition that most national security figures and the broader mainstream media don’t seem to fully grasp. It’s a contest over military-technical superiority, and whether the United States can sustain its advantage deep into the 21st century or be overtaken by its competitors.
More from CNAS
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Reports
Technology & National Security
Open Source Software and the Department of DefenseSenior leaders across the defense establishment are justifiably concerned about the erosion of U.S. military technical superiority and have recently launched several high-leve...
By Ben FitzGerald, Jacqueline Parziale & Peter L. Levin
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Technology & National Security
This Week in Defense News: DoD Offset StrategyBy Ben FitzGerald
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Defense / Technology & National Security
Beyond Offset: Paul Scharre on Technical LandscapeBy Paul Scharre
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National Security Human Capital Program / Technology & National Security
Nuclear Weapons in the Third Offset Strategy: Avoiding a Nuclear Blind Spot in the Pentagon’s New InitiativeRobert M. Gates Fellow Elbridge Colby argues that the Third Offset Strategy focus on how nuclear weapons will factor into the warfighting “regime” the new initiative envisions...
By Elbridge Colby
