Strategy & Policy

Renowned strategist Richard Rumelt defines strategy as “a set of objectives, policies and plans that, taken together, define the scope of the enterprise and its approach to survival and success.” Rumelt goes on to suggest that, “as a strategist you try to identify, create, or exploit some kind of edge… when you are trying to create or exploit the advantage… the first thing you need is an asymmetry.” Today, the United States confronts three principal, and most likely protracted, challenges to its national security: the rise of China, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and disruption, and the spread of Islamic extremism. The United States finds itself tackling these challenges at a time when its primacy is increasingly contested and its economic foundation eroding. CSBA seeks to inform the development of U.S. strategy by developing innovative options to reconcile ends and means, and by identifying sources of enduring advantage to help the U.S. sustain its position and meet challenges of the 21st century.