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
Taking Back the Seas: Transforming the U.S. Surface Fleet for Decision-Centric Warfare
The U.S. Navy’s surface fleet is at a crossroads. Today’s force lacks the size, resilience, and offensive capacity to contribute effectively to degrading, delaying, or denying aggression.
Studies
Winning the Invisible War: Gaining an Enduring U.S. Advantage in the Electromagnetic Spectrum
The proliferation and growing sophistication of civilian and military EMS capabilities has resulted in an increasingly congested and contested electromagnetic environment for which the U.S. military is unprepared. Over the past decade, several government and external assessments found that the U.S. military is falling behind Chinese and Russian forces in electronic warfare (EW) and that U.S. forces will be challenged to achieve EMS superiority in future conflicts.
Studies
Did Dollars Follow Strategy? A Review of the FY 2020 Defense Budget
On 1 October, the U.S. federal government ushers in its Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. If policymakers approve the $738 billion national defense budget – the amount agreed to by the White House and Congressional leaders in a July 2019 agreement – military spending will have increased in real terms for the fifth consecutive year.
Studies
Stealing a March: Chinese Hybrid Warfare in the Indo-Pacific; Issues and Options for Allied Defense Planners
Stealing a March: Chinese Hybrid Warfare in the Indo-Pacific: Issues and Options for Allied Defense Planners examines Beijing’s hybrid warfare campaigns, their origins, means and modes, level of success and possible future shape. It also assesses the primary options for U.S. and allied counter-strategy.
Studies
Winning Without Fighting: Chinese and Russian Political Warfare Campaigns and How the West Can Prevail
Winning Without Fighting: Chinese and Russian Political Warfare Campaigns and How the West Can Prevail assesses the role of political warfare in Chinese and Russian strategy. The report goes beyond diagnosing the challenge to offer a range of potential allied counter-strategies and proposes a new conceptual approach to such thinking.
Testimonies
Statement before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on A “World-Class” Military: Assessing China’s Global Military Ambitions
Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in a hearing on “A ‘World-Class' Military: Assessing China’s Global Military Ambitions” on June 20, 2019.