American arms and industry in a changing international order

ABSTRACT

United States support for Ukraine and preparation for a potential, likely protracted, conflict with China has drawn attention to the fragility of the U.S. defense industrial base. Since the end of the Cold War, the American defense industry has optimized for peacetime and low-attrition conflicts, prized efficiency and cost-savings over capacity and flexibility, and incentivized short-run returns over resilience and innovation. While this design may have made sense in a period of undisputed U.S. dominance, the rise of the People’s Republic of China as a peer competitor and the emerging demand that the U.S. deter and, if necessary, win one or more protracted conflicts requires that Washington take a more intentional and direct role in shaping the capability, capacity, and resilience of the U.S. defense industrial base.

KEYWORDS:

• Defense industry
• American defense industrial base
• power
• great power competition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosella Cappella Zielinski

Rosella Cappella Zielinski is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Political Economy Working Group at Boston University, and Non-Resident Fellow at the Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare at Marine Corps University.

Frank Finelli

Frank Finelli is managing director at the Carlyle Group, focusing on investments in the defense and aerospace sector, where he has led numerous acquisitions and developed Carlyle’s cross-portfolio value creation and risk reduction

Samuel Gerstle

Samuel Gerstle is a PhD student at Boston University. He previously worked at The Asia Group and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Isak Kulalic

Isak Kulaic is a recent MA graduate in International Affairs from Boston University. His research revolves around post conflict development in the Western Balkans and regional European and North Atlantic integration.

Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is also an Andrew Carnegie Fellow for his work on the American military-industrial complex from the 1950s to the early 21^st century.