Skip to section navigation
Skip to page content

RAND > Topics >

Military Strategy

Featured

RAND research on military strategy has ranged from issues related to the tactics that lead to success in armed engagements, to work that describes how the size and deployment of one nation's military affects its political relationships with others.

Report

America Needs a Collaborative Approach to Manage Its Adversaries and Strengthen Its Partnerships

Jan 5, 2016

How should the United States manage its relationships with partners and adversaries in a world of shrinking defense budgets and reduced political will for international engagement?

Explore Military Strategy

Journal Article

Journal Article

Is China Pursuing Counter-Intervention?

The term "counter-invention" has become burdened with conflated meanings and thus controversial in describing aspects of Chinese national and military strategy.

Oct 11, 2017
Report

How Might Russia Respond to U.S. and NATO Posture Changes?

The escalation in tensions between Russia and NATO since 2014 has led to numerous proposals to enhance U.S. and NATO posture on the Alliance's eastern flank. Assessing Russia's possible reactions is vital to any analysis of which posture and capability enhancements the U.S. and NATO should pursue.

Oct 10, 2017
Commentary

Adding Shots on Target: Wargaming Beyond the Game

Figuring out what the future may look like—and what concepts and technology we should invest in now to prepare—is hard. How can the wargaming community build a cycle of research to help understand what these paths might be?

Oct 9, 2017
Journal Article

Journal Article

Total Defense: How the Baltic States Are Integrating Citizenry Into Their National Security Strategies

The Baltic states' thinking about national defense increasingly encompasses civil society, starting from the leveraging of civilian infrastructure to the participation of civilians in national defense..

Oct 6, 2017
Commentary

The Rorschach Test of New Nuclear Powers: Analogies for North Korean Command and Control

Is Pyongyang more like modern Islamabad or Soviet Moscow? The answer must draw on the expertise of scholars of civil-military relations as well as nuclear strategy. Even then analogy is only a starting point—North Korea may be more or less like previous cases, but will certainly be unique.

Oct 6, 2017
Commentary

On North Korea, Past Foreign Policy Fiascoes Show U.S. What Not to Do

Foreign policy disasters are often the sum of two basic errors: embracing exaggerated claims about the need to act, and inventing a conceptual magic wand to wish away potential consequences. Both are apparent in U.S. policy toward North Korea's nuclear aspirations.

Oct 5, 2017
Commentary

Decertifying the Iran Nuclear Deal Would Not Increase U.S. Leverage

The Iran nuclear agreement is not perfect, but it is working. Iran is no longer on the brink of being able to produce a nuclear weapon as it was two years ago. The suggestion that decertifying would increase U.S. leverage to renegotiate and strengthen the agreement is unrealistic.

Oct 5, 2017
Report

Risk of U.S.-China Conflict Should Not Be Ignored or Exaggerated

Armed conflict between the United States and China isn't likely. But the possibility is real enough to warrant prudent policies and effective deterrence. America should continue to support China's neighbors while drawing Beijing into cooperative security endeavors.

Oct 2, 2017
Report

Report

Objectives of the United States Military Posture

Discussion of U.S. military posture and its objectives in a period of possible parity between the Soviet Union and the United States in the possession of hardened missiles.

Sep 29, 2017
Report

Report

On Dealing with Castro's Cuba:: Part I

This 1965 RAND Corporation document examined the arguments for a rapprochement with Castro in 1964.

Sep 29, 2017
Commentary

Book Review: 'The Chessboard and the Web,' by Anne-Marie Slaughter

Few quests in international relations scholarship are as imperative and vexing as that of rethinking power — how it is defined, who wields which types, and what strategies different actors pursue to accumulate it. Slaughter's new book is a significant contribution to that end.

Sep 22, 2017
Commentary

What a 1963 Novel Tells Us About the French Army, Mission Command, and the Romance of the Indochina War

The novel La 317e Section (The 317th Platoon) informs and reflects an operating style rooted in the French Army's collective memory of the colonial wars. Colonial operations tended to be low-budget, small-footprint missions that placed junior officers in positions of considerable authority and responsibility. Service promised quick glory but was also more dangerous.

Sep 20, 2017
Commentary

Chinese Bomber Flights Around Taiwan: For What Purpose?

Recent bomber flights near Taiwan represent the most concerted training regimen yet aimed at improving Chinese airpower. China seeks to enhance the PLA Air Force's capabilities and signal Beijing's will to defend its territorial claims against the U.S. and its regional allies and partners, especially Taiwan and Japan.

Sep 13, 2017
Commentary

Managing Chaos in an Era of Great Power Competition

As Washington policymakers seek a new strategic course, U.S. national security strategy should not neglect the importance of competition short of armed conflict. A U.S. strategy that incorporates this perspective from the beginning could manage chaos at a reasonable cost.

Sep 5, 2017
Commentary

'Game of Thrones' Dragons, Nuclear Weapons, and Winning Whatever the Cost

HBO's hit series “Game of Thrones” may be fantasy, but it explores many challenges that are familiar to real-world leaders. The military use of dragons and the dilemma these beasts pose is one recent example.

Aug 24, 2017
Commentary

How to Keep Iran from Becoming the Next North Korea

The United States brokered an agreement to constrain North Korea's nuclear program 25 years ago, but hard-liners abandoned it with vague intentions of coercing the North into something better. They never did, and now a runaway North Korean program poses real danger. This offers a powerful reason to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.

Aug 22, 2017
Commentary

Trump's New Afghanistan Strategy: Governing from the Center?

The president has embraced a national security establishment strategy for Afghanistan with a veneer that does not alter its essence. The result is likely to disappoint some of his supporters and to be criticized by his opponents, but it will also secure a measure of bipartisan support.

Aug 22, 2017
Essay

Understanding North Korea

How should the United States respond to North Korea's provocative behavior? Even the best military options could be cataclysmically bad, but there are nonmilitary options to convince Kim Jong Un that the costs of his provocations outweigh any benefits.

Aug 18, 2017
Commentary

The North Korea Standoff: Have We Been Here Before?

How the United States responded to China's nuclear weapons program last century can provide lessons for today's debate about North Korea. For instance, the conclusion that the only option is deterrence is still sound.

Aug 14, 2017
Commentary

Contain, Deter, Transform: A Winning Strategy on North Korea

North Korea's missile tests and reported progress in nuclear warhead design have produced a volatile new urgency in U.S. policy. Contain, deter, and transform isn't a radical solution, but it's one that has worked before. This approach could preserve U.S. interests while avoiding war.

Aug 9, 2017

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Next

RAND Topic:
Military Strategy

Research conducted by