Chris, Melanie, and Zack debate U.S. global posture. How can the National Defense Strategy bring resources and requirements into alignment? With the Defense Department having just completed its global posture review, is Bob Work right that the U.S. Navy needs to shed its attachment to presence? Is Bryan McGrath correct that the answer is more resources? Or can new approaches — like the Marine Corps’ A Concept for Stand-in Forces — square this circle? Chris and Zack hope their holiday presents will include a clear U.S. strategy on China. Melanie hopes for a nuclear power revolution. And all three wish listeners a happy holiday season.

Links:

Jim Garamone, “Biden Approves Global Posture Review Recommendations,” DOD News, Nov. 29, 2021, https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2856053/biden-approves-global-posture-review-recommendations/.

U.S. Marine Corps, “A Concept for Stand-In Forces,” December 2021, https://www.hqmc.marines.mil/Portals/142/Users/183/35/4535/211201_A%20Concept%20for%20Stand-In%20Forces.pdf?ver=MFOzu2hs_IWHZlsOAkfZsQ%3d%3d.

Robert O. Work, “A Slavish Devotion to Forward Presence Has Nearly Broken the U.S. Navy,” Proceedings, December 2021, https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2021/december/slavish-devotion-forward-presence-has-nearly-broken-us-navy.

Bryan McGrath, “What Is The Navy For?,” The Conservative Wahoo, Dec. 1, 2021, https://conservativewahoo.substack.com/p/what-is-the-navy-for.

Mara Karlin, The Inheritance: America’s Military After Two Decades of War (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2021), https://www.brookings.edu/book/the-inheritance/.

Christopher A. Preble, “The Cold War Navy in the Post War World,” Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 195, Aug. 2, 1993, https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa195.pdf.

“The Discreet Charm of Nuclear Power,” The Economist, Nov. 13, 2021.

CDR Salamander, “The Global Posture Review: Strategic Vapor Lock,” Substack, Nov. 30, 2021.

Jack Detsch, “‘No Decisions, No Changes’: Pentagon Fails to Stick Asia Pivot,” Foreign Policy, Nov. 29, 2021.

Dan Lamothe, “After Extraordinary Sacrifice—and Years of Delay—Alwyn Cashe Gets His Medal of Honor,” Washington Post, Dec. 15, 2021.