Policy & Strategy

Policy & Strategy

The United States confronts a number of challenges to its national security: the rise of China, a revisionist Russia, the growth and spread of new ways of war, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and disruption. These threats continue to emerge as competitors contest U.S. primacy and as the economic foundation of American power erodes.

CSBA develops innovative work that:

  • Reconciles ends and means;
  • Identifies sources of enduring U.S. advantage; and
  • Informs U.S. and allied strategy to meet 21st century challenges.

Future Warfare, Concepts, & Capabilities

CSBA specializes in thinking about the future of warfare. As President Eisenhower observed, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” Although the future cannot be predicted, thinking about it is essential to formulate concepts and strategies that are effective across contingencies, realistic in capabilities, and feasible within resource constraints.

CSBA’s work emphasizes:

  • Net assessment to frame future military competitions, evaluate competitors’ relative strengths and weaknesses, and identify sources of competitive advantage;
  • Scenario planning and wargaming to identify future trends and operational concepts, understand emerging warfare regimes, and challenge preconceived notions of the future;
  • Analysis of future security and operating environments to highlight ongoing trends and critical gaps in the current defense program;
  • Development of operational concepts that serve as the “connective tissue” linking U.S. strategy with the defense program; and
  • Identification of capabilities best aligned to support a given strategy, including changes in force structure, operational concepts, and system performance characteristics.
Budgets & Resources

Budgets & Resources

The perennial question for U.S. policymakers is: “How much is enough?” Following decades of buildup, the U.S. Department of Defense confronts increasing pressures for fiscal austerity and difficult trade-offs.

CSBA provides:

  • Independent budgetary analysis for those both in and out of government;
  • Assessments of near-and long-term trade-offs;
  • Analysis of the second-order consequences of changes to the defense program; and
  • Context for how budgets align with U.S. defense policy and strategy.
  • Explore CSBA’s Strategic Choices Tool

Research Methods

Our analytic studies look 20–30 years into the future and are informed by history. They frame security developments within a broader context of strategic competition. They identify critical areas of competition, particularly with regard to technological development, as well as the competitive advantages and disadvantages of the United States and potential adversaries. They account for bureaucratic dynamics and their influence on policy.

CSBA’s experts craft solutions to operational problems that leverage both new technologies and existing capabilities in unique ways. These concepts can be used to guide U.S. military training, planning, and investment decisions.

The hallmark of CSBA’s budgetary analysis is its Strategic Choices Tool, an interactive, web-based program for rebalancing force structures. It is designed to help users assess alternative force structures and postures; identify areas for greater investment or smart divestment; learn from U.S. and allied budget and force structure data; explore new operational concepts; and evaluate the division of labor between the United States and its allies.

CSBA crafts plausible future scenarios that helps U.S. defense and military planners to guard against strategic surprise. It uses these to assess present-day measures that may mitigate or preclude those challenges.

For over two decades, CSBA has conducted wargames that examine the many facets of modern and future military competitions. CSBA’s wargames allow participants to test strategies, reveal vulnerabilities, and explore a range of possible responses to current and future challenges.

CSBA’s workshops and seminars bring together experts across disciplines to consider potential responses to both tactical and strategic challenges facing the United States. The variety of expertise represented at these events creates a fertile environment for cross-cutting insights and creative thinking.

CSBA runs education initiatives on strategic competition, operational challenges and developments, and other defense topics for defense officials, congressional staffers, journalists, and other groups.