How to write a defense strategy that sticks

Defense strategy has become a booming enterprise, yet its core themes often boil down to a single word—or just a few. Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure in the Pentagon was defined by “ transformation ,” while Lloyd Austin’s strategy emphasized “campaigning” and “integrated deterrence.” Robert Gates captured his focus succinctly when he warned that the Defense Department was plagued by “ next-war-itis ”: prioritizing future conflicts over the wars it was already fighting. In the first Trump administration’s defense strategy , Jim Mattis emphasized increasing lethality in the U.S. military, and the return of long-term strategic competition with Russia and China, which came to be known as “great power competition”—or GPC for short—from a single mention in the 2017 National Security Strategy