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Studies
Strengthening the U.S. Defense Maritime Industrial Base: A Plan to Improve Maritime Industry’s Contribution to National Security
Bryan Clark, Timothy A. Walton, Adam Lemon
The heart of CSBA is our staff of uniquely qualified defense experts who conduct in-depth strategic and budgetary analyses.
Latest Publications
Studies
Uncovering China’s Influence in Europe: How Friendship Groups Coopt European Elites
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
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
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
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
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?
Testimonies
Statement Before the House Armed Services Committee: The Department of Defense’s Role in Long-Term Major State Competition
On February 11, 2020, CSBA President and CEO Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services (HASC). Dr. Mahnken was invited to appear before the HASC to deliver his observations on current Defense Department (DoD) priorities, the National Defense Strategy Commission, and the investments and other requirements to enable the United States to succeed in the current era of Great Power competition.