The U.S. and its allies require robust supply chains less susceptible to risk. Strategic competitors aim to dominate key areas of production. A RAND initiative offers a more complete understanding.
A U.S. naval air crewman lowers a litter onto the deck of a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden
Photo by Logan C. Kellums/U.S. Navy
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House invoked the Defense Production Act to repurpose U.S. factories to produce ventilators. But factory capacity was not the major issue. The problem was the lack of components, sourced from more than fourteen different countries. This is only the most-recent example where complexity in the globalized supply chain potentially put U.S. lives and national security at risk. The RAND National Security Supply Chain Institute is an initiative meant to help understand and mitigate these risks.
U.S. decisionmakers and allied leaders want to ensure that their supply chains:
Vulnerabilities in the supply chains did not develop from market forces alone. Government actions are responsible for some of the risks we currently see. Other supply chain research organizations focus on logistics and transportation, not national security. This Institute focuses on ways to alter chains in order to mitigate risks to national security.
The Institute is interested in potential disruptions to the global supply chain. Because of current events, this has recently meant a special focus on China. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imperatives drive China's global supply chain behavior. CCP manipulates supply chains to serve its political interests, regardless of what the market might generate.
Specific actions by China have threatened to dominate key areas of production. China supplies significant portions of components and commodities that are deemed critical:
Efforts to decouple U.S. and Chinese supply chains will likely have significant impact on the economies, labor markets, environment and national security of the United States and its allies.
The Institute is already working to identify immediate threats to national security, and assess the scope of the challenge to U.S. and allied national power.
Future research overseen by the Institute will assess potential public and private sector decisions to create robust supply chains.
Goals of this research will be to:
Bradley Martin is the director of the RAND National Security Supply Chain Institute.
Much of this work is conducted within RAND's National Security Research Division (NSRD).
For questions about RAND's supply chain research, or to participate in the Institute's work, contact Bradley Martin.
