Publications

The United States has always been a maritime nation. Since its founding, Americans have taken to the sea for trade, to harvest the resources in America’s waters and seabed, and to defend or advance the country’s interests. A robust commercial maritime industry is essential to support these efforts, which enhance America’s prosperity and security.

REGAINING THE HIGH GROUND AT SEA examines trends in U.S. strategy, capabilities, and threats between now and 2040 to describe the operational concepts carrier aircraft will likely need to use in the future, as well as the implications for how carrier air wings should evolve during the next 20 years.

By the middle of the 21st century, ground forces will employ tens of thousands of robots, and the decisions of human commanders will be shaped by artificial intelligence; trends in technology and warfare make this a near certainty. The military organizations of the United States and its allies and partners must plan now for this new era of warfare.

The threat of nuclear attack by a great power or a rogue state is a major reason why every U.S. administration since the end of the Cold War has validated the need to maintain a safe, secure, and credible nuclear triad. Russia maintains a large stockpile of nuclear warheads and continues to adhere to military doctrine that indicates it might be willing to use nuclear weapons to coerce the United States and its allies in a crisis. Both Russia and China are funding multiple programs to modernize their nuclear arsenals, and the proliferation of advanced military technologies has allowed North Korea to fast-track its nuclear weapons development program.

This study describes the challenges and opportunities America and its allies face in the Arctic and Antarctic and proposes new roles and missions, operational concepts, and capabilities U.S. naval and air forces should pursue to protect and further U.S. and allied national security interests in the high latitudes.

In 2013, CSBA released a report that recommended priorities for a force shaped to operate in the contested environments of the Asia–Pacific and other regions. This follow-on report recommends DoD shift its future force planning toward developing new operating concepts and capability mixes needed to deter, and if necessary defeat, aggression by China and Russia.