Envisioning a New Strategy to Counter Great Power Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction

This monograph dated January 2022 describes the need to develop a new national strategy for countering WMD, In particular, we suggest that:

1. New strategic guidance must offer a new construct on how the U.S. government prioritizes WMD threat sources and articulates ways and means for aligning whole-of-government resources, starting with a new National Strategy for Countering WMD that outlines how to address great power competition through deterrence, diplomacy, and defense operations.

2. New national strategic guidance must abandon the actoragnostic view of the current national/DOD strategies so as to adequately address Chinese/Russian WMD challenges, as well as acknowledge the differences between peer/near-peer and lesser states, as well as violent extremist organizations.

3. A more engaged National Security Council staff must oversee strategies developed by executive agencies, in particular, DOD, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of Health and Human Services, and the intelligence community.