Our Work

We believe that the primary task for our generation is to build a new American strategy attuned to the pressing realities of our time. This framework must be comprehensive of the major regions and dimensions of U.S. power and interests. It must also be willing to challenge established wisdom and inertia in U.S. national security policy and related fields.

China’s “New” Diplomacy: Opportunities for American Statecraft

by A. Wess Mitchell and Christopher Vassallo

The People’s Republic of China has embarked on an ambitious diplomatic campaign to increase its influence in strategically-vital regions and burnish its credentials as a great power of global reach.
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No Sanctuary: The PLA’s Kinetic Threat to the Homeland

by William Kim and Elbridge A. Colby

Without adequate U.S. preparations, a large-scale—or even small but effectively targeted— PLA strike against the United States could be devastating, not only in terms of direct costs but on the ability of the United States to wage a war.
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Getting Strategic Deprioritization Right

by A. Wess Mitchell and Jakub Grygiel, Principal Co-Investigators; Elbridge A. Colby and Matt Pottinger, Contributors

Project prepared for the Office of Net Assessment, United States Department of Defense. Published with approval from the Office of Net Assessment.
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Sino-American Competition, Global Strategy, and the Place of the Middle East

by David Hale

The Middle East has for so long dominated the United States’ vision of its threats that it has come to distort the latter’s picture of the globe; a correction of these distortions is overdue. The United States also has a significant, if at present strained, informal alliance structure in the region and considerable assets — soft and hard — that should not be abandoned. What is needed is a sense of proportion, balance, and conceptual coherence for the partnerships among the United States and like-minded Middle Eastern states to guide the re-prioritization inherent in the idea of a rational pivot.
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January 23, 2024

Why Should Americans Care About the Future of Taiwan?

The Morgan Ortagus Show | “Why should Americans care about the future of Taiwan? Elbridge Colby dived into why supporting democracy in the Indo-Pacific is crucial to American national security on ‘The Morgan Ortagus Show’. Catch our full interview on the Sirius XM app!”...........
January 20, 2024

VOA Korea: [워싱턴 톡] “‘타이완 전쟁’ 시 한국 스스로 방어해야…북한 남침해도 중국 격퇴가 우선” // [Washington Talk] “Korea must defend itself in case of ‘Taiwan War’… Even if North Korea invades South Korea, defeating China comes first.”

VOA Korea | American experts have pointed out that if war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait and the United States intervenes, Korea will have to defend itself. The explanation is that even if China instigates North Korea to attack South Korea, the US military's core forces will prioritize dealing with China, not the North Korean threat.
January 18, 2024

Rethinking Strategic Competition with China: A Conversation with Elbridge Colby

CSIS ChinaPower Podcast | In this episode of the ChinaPower Podcast, Mr. Elbridge Colby joins us to discuss U.S. strategic competition with China. Mr. Colby stresses that he is most worried about the PRC military threat............
January 14, 2024

The Global Impact of Chinese Ascendancy Examined with Elbridge Colby

Lead-Lag Live Podcastast | Elbridge Colby, the architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy and author of "The Strategy of Denial," joins us to untangle the complex web of China's rise and its implications for global power dynamics...........
January 12, 2024

The U.S. has ‘a set of bad options’ in the Red Sea, says fmr. Pentagon official Elbridge Colby

CNBC | Elbridge Colby, former Pentagon official in the Trump administration and ‘The Strategy of Denial’ author, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the U.S.-led coalition strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in....
January 12, 2024

The Impact of Taiwan’s upcoming Presidential Elections

Renaissance Macro Research | Former Pentagon official and defense strategy author Elbridge Colby joins RenMac to discuss The Impact of Taiwan's upcoming Presidential Elections. ..........
January 12, 2024

FP Insider: This Is a ‘5-Alarm Fire Right Now’

Foreign Policy | Viewed from Washington, there’s currently one big war going on in Ukraine, another war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that could get bigger, and one war that hasn’t started yet but that would dwarf all the others should it come to pass: a war between the United States and China....
January 8, 2024

What to know about China’s military purge

Semafor | Over the past six months, a widening shake-up of China’s defense establishment has raised questions about leader Xi Jinping’s ability to root out corruption in the armed forces and modernize the country’s military. ...
January 8, 2024

Intercollegiate Studies Institute: Elbridge Colby & Saagar Enjeti

Intercollegiate Studies Institute | Elbridge Colby, a strategic thinker and national security expert, engages in a thought-provoking conversation on the intersection of economics and global security. ...........
January 2, 2024

U.S.’ Mistakes On Iran, Russia Vs China’s Ambitions | Elbridge Colby Podcast

Hindustan Times Podcast | In the latest episode of HT Podcast, Elbridge Colby - Former Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary, USA & Co-founder & Principal, Marathon Initiative - argues that the U.S. should not seek to be the leader of the world and abandon policies that it does not have the resources to back up...........