Publications
"Nobody does defense policy better than CSBA. Their work on strategic and budgetary topics manages to combine first-rate quality and in-depth research with timeliness and accessibility—which is why so many professionals consider their products indispensable." – Gideon Rose, Editor of Foreign Affairs, 2010-2021
Search Publications
Studies
Cyber Warfare: A “Nuclear Option”?
How valid is the growing concern among senior U.S. leaders that state and non-state actors will become increasingly capable of executing cyber attacks with catastrophic consequences? Does the expansion of the military competition into the cyber domain represent a major shift in the character of warfare?
Studies
Rebalancing Military Compensation: An Evidence-Based Approach
This groundbreaking study presents a new approach for optimizing the military compensation system. Rather than focusing exclusively on reducing costs, the study looks at options for getting better value from the compensation system by shifting funds from undervalued forms of compensation to more highly valued forms of compensation.
Studies
Strategy in Austerity
How does the leading power in the international system sustain its global position while facing the prospect of relative decline and an extended period of fiscal austerity? The answer to this question is fundamental to American policymakers’ prospects for sustaining U.S. primacy in the international system.
Studies
Changing the Game: the Promise of Directed-Energy Weapons
Emerging directed energy technologies have the potential to transition to real-world military capabilities over the next twenty years; and become a particularly promising source of operational advantage for the U.S. military.
Briefs
The Geostrategic Return of the Philippines
As the Obama administration executes its strategic “pivot” to the Western Pacific in the face of China’s military buildup, it is rediscovering the importance of a long-standing ally in the region.
Studies
The Road Ahead: Future Challenges and Their Implications for Ground Vehicle Modernization
After a decade of intensive ground operations overseas, both the Army and the Marines face important vehicle modernization issues. Addressing these issues will entail meeting two central planning challenges, the first being the inherent uncertainty of the future security environment, and the second an austere contemporary economic and budgetary environment that may exist for an extended period. This study provides a way of thinking about the Army and Marine Corps vehicle portfolios, and suggests some issues that merit attention from those tasked with determining their composition.