How to write a defense strategy that sticks

QUENTIN E. HODGSON

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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. The 2018 defense strategy does not use the term at all in its unclassified summary.

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is gearing up to develop its own defense strategy after issuing a classified interim strategic guidance document this spring. The word or phrase that will come to characterize the new defense strategy will emerge soon enough. Crafting good strategy, however, is about more than catchy labels or bumper stickers. It requires carefully written strategic guidance that leaves little room for ambiguity. A good defense strategy provides clear direction to the department’s many components, including the military services, the combatant commands, and myriad agencies.

Some labels tend to take over while simultaneously losing their meaning. In the early 2000s, it seemed just about every program had a “transformation” label slapped on it to align with Rumsfeld’s vision. The Army called its Crusader self-propelled artillery program transformational, even though at a projected 70 tons, the civilian leadership of the Pentagon saw it as more of a legacy program. Integrated deterrence under Secretary Austin suffered from a lack of focus and definition, leading to jokes that briefings on the 2022 National Defense Strategy should have included “stay tuned for more details” as placeholder slides. These examples highlight how quickly a defense strategy’s key term can move from a rallying cry to an ineffectual catch phrase.