Strategy, technology, industry and politics: challenges for the 21^st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

ABSTRACT

This article introduces nine essays capturing panel discussions at the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy on 8–9 February 2023, in support of the Office of the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These essays were selected from among 31 panel essays to represent central defense issues: alliance management, technology in conflict, defense industrial policy, and the domestic politics of defense strategy. The participants asked one another how each of these challenges were likely to shape international order and ordering, and how the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff could best prepare. The authors of this introductory essay argue that while the constellation of challenges outlined by the nine essays in this special section are clearly daunting, they are not totally unprecedented, and the US and its allies have tools at their disposal to respond effectively. US strategists may need to focus more on the domestic sources of foreign and security policies in allies and adversaries alike and implement emerging technologies alongside time-tested human tools of statecraft, all while rebuilding US and allied defense industrial bases amid complex and conflictual domestic political economies.

KEYWORDS:

• Strategy
• Technology
• Defense Industrial Policy

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jordan Becker

Jordan Becker is Director of the Social Science Research Lab at West Point. He has served as an Infantry, Special Forces, and Foreign Area Officer in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

Joshua Woodaz

Joshua Woodaz is an Instructor of American Politics in the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY. He has served as US Army Adjutant General officer in the 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division., serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wendy Anderson

Wendy Anderson is the former Chief of Staff to the late Ash Carter, former US Secretary of Defense.