News

CSBA Appoints Chris Bassler as Senior Fellow

May 26, 2020

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a premier institution for understanding the future of international competition and conflict, today announced the appointment of Dr. Chris Bassler as a Senior Fellow, effective immediately. Chris joins CSBA following an exceptionally distinguished career in government, and he will contribute to the organization’s research on joint aerospace capabilities, maritime operating concepts, and overall U.S. military strategy.

CSBA Appoints David Zikusoka as Research Fellow in Aerospace Studies

January 30, 2020

CSBA today announced the appointment of David Zikusoka as a Research Fellow in Aerospace Studies. Dave will join CSBA on February 10 and will conduct research and analysis on integrated concepts of air, space and cyber power, assessing the impact of all aerospace domains on U.S. and allied strategy.

CSBA: USAF Must Get Bigger, Stealthier, Faster, and More Spread Out

January 23, 2020 Air Force Magazine

The Air Force isn’t well structured to carry out the National Defense Strategy, and in order to deter a major war, it must add more and stealthier aircraft, expand its use of unmanned systems, accelerate the development of new technology, and learn to operate from more dispersed locations, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

US Think Tank Calls for ‘Fundamental Reshape’ of US Surface Fleet to Defeat Chinese Threat

January 9, 2020 Defence Connect

The US-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments has launched a new report revealing the growing need for what it defines as a “fundamental reshape” of the US Navy’s surface force, adapting new technologies, greater payloads, longer range offensive weapons and ‘distributed lethality’ concepts to counter China’s rising capabilities.

Is Russia Better at Electronic and Ground Warfare Than America?

January 9, 2020 The National Interest

Key point: Moscow has gotten good at jamming advanced American systems. The U.S. military is spending more and more on electronic-warfare systems, all in a desperate bid to keep pace with China and Russia’s own investments in jammers.

Studies

Which Way the Dragon? Sharpening Allied Perceptions of China’s Strategic Trajectory

August 6, 2020 Ross Babbage, Jack Bianchi, Julian Snelder, Toshi Yoshihara, Aaron Friedberg and Nadège Rolland

Given the rapid pace of change throughout Asia in recent decades, assessing China’s longer-term trajectory – and that of the Indo-Pacific region as a whole – represents a huge challenge for defense and security planners. Attempts to predict China’s strategic posture 15 to 30 years from now are hampered by a far more volatile security environment than that which governed the Cold War era.

Studies

Uncovering China’s Influence in Europe: How Friendship Groups Coopt European Elites

July 1, 2020 Toshi Yoshihara, Jack Bianchi

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to shape the external environment to its liking through several means, ranging from coercive uses of military power to economic statecraft to influence operations. Beijing’s global campaign to influence perceptions and policies abroad, in particular, has drawn media attention and, increasingly, government scrutiny. In Europe, the CCP has opened a broad political front that could have implications for the region’s long-term policies toward China and for transatlantic relations. There is thus a growing need for policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic to better understand the goals, strategies, and methods of the actors that promote CCP influence in Europe.

Studies

Dragon Against the Sun: Chinese Views of Japanese Seapower

May 19, 2020 Toshi Yoshihara

Over the past decade, the Chinese navy overtook Japan’s maritime service in critical measures of power, including fleet size, aggregate tonnage, and firepower. China eclipsing Japan in naval power could introduce unwelcome strategic trends. It may well fuel an even more intense competition between Tokyo and Beijing, two seafaring rivals that already regard each other with deep suspicion. Japan’s displacement at sea could increase the probability of deterrence failure in the next crisis. It threatens to undercut U.S. confidence in Japan’s capacity to fulfill its allied responsibilities, sowing acrimony within the security partnership.

Studies

Deterrence by Detection: A Key Role for Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Great Power Competition

April 14, 2020 Thomas G. Mahnken, Travis Sharp, Grace B. Kim

In an era of renewed great power competition, one of the most significant challenges the United States and its allies face is the need to deny China or Russia the ability to launch opportunistic acts of aggression against an ally or partner in the Western Pacific or Eastern Europe. There is increasing concern among defense policymakers in the United States and its allies and partners that China and Russia are developing the ability to launch aggression rapidly against states on their periphery under the cover of increasingly capable reconnaissance-strike networks.

Studies

COVID-19 Analysis and Policy Implications

April 7, 2020 Harrison Schramm, Kevin A. Chlan, Peter Kouretsos

The novel Coronavirus-19 is currently impacting all facets of American life. In this report, CSBA Senior Fellow Harrison Schram, Federal Executive Fellow Kevin Chlan, and Research Analyst Peter Kouretsos characterize both the immediate and long-term policy implications of this pandemic, with a focus how it will impact today’s U.S. Department of Defense as well as future American military capabilities.

Studies

Forging the Tools of 21st Century Great Power Competition

March 16, 2020 Thomas G. Mahnken

The U.S. national security community has, in recent years, begun to focus its attention on the need to compete with China and Russia. The move to embrace the reality of great power competition, and with it the prospect of great power war, comes after a three-decade respite from serious thinking about what it means to face an economically powerful and technologically sophisticated adversary in peace and in war. How can our governmental organizations, our defense planning premises and priorities, and the linkages among diverse elements of national power be revamped to focus our collective energies on a more demanding set of security challenges than has been the case since the end of the Cold War?

Which Way the Dragon? Sharpening Allied Perceptions of China’s Strategic Trajectory

Uncovering China’s Influence in Europe: How Friendship Groups Coopt European Elites

Dragon Against the Sun: Chinese Views of Japanese Seapower

Deterrence by Detection: A Key Role for Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Great Power Competition

COVID-19 Analysis and Policy Implications

Forging the Tools of 21st Century Great Power Competition

Strengthening the U.S. Defense Maritime Industrial Base: A Plan to Improve Maritime Industry’s Contribution to National Security

Featured Event

Report Release Webinar—Deterrence by Detection: A Key Role for Unmanned Systems in Great Power Competition

CSBA Bolsters Its Research and Publications Team

CSBA Appoints Chris Bassler as Senior Fellow

CSBA Appoints David Zikusoka as Research Fellow in Aerospace Studies

CSBA: USAF Must Get Bigger, Stealthier, Faster, and More Spread Out

US Think Tank Calls for ‘Fundamental Reshape’ of US Surface Fleet to Defeat Chinese Threat

Is Russia Better at Electronic and Ground Warfare Than America?

Latest Publications

Which Way the Dragon? Sharpening Allied Perceptions of China’s Strategic Trajectory

Uncovering China’s Influence in Europe: How Friendship Groups Coopt European Elites

Dragon Against the Sun: Chinese Views of Japanese Seapower

Deterrence by Detection: A Key Role for Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Great Power Competition

COVID-19 Analysis and Policy Implications

Forging the Tools of 21st Century Great Power Competition