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Weekend Reads
Competing with the new axis of aggressors—China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—will not be sufficient to preserve the United States’ freedom of action on the world stage and protect the liberties Americans have long enjoyed.
In these urgent times, the US needs a policy reset to achieve an overmatch against this axis. In Foreign Affairs, Nadia Schadlow explains how. Her key points are below.
Key Insights
1. Military power is what undergirds and secures the country’s economic and political advantages.
The United States should develop advanced warfighting capabilities that give it asymmetric advantages over its opponents. In Ukraine, drones have disabled or neutralized Russian tanks and warships, and Russian forces have found it difficult to defend against these incoming strikes. In a potential conflict over Taiwan, long-range anti-ship missiles and intermediate-range cruise and ballistic missiles could undercut China’s advantages in geography and quantity of weapons. With superior technology and innovative operational concepts, the US military can confound enemy war plans and lower the risk of its forces’ being overwhelmed and induced to capitulate at the start of a conflict.
2. To maintain overmatch, the US needs to cultivate its economic advantages.
The biggest step the United States should take in this direction is to incentivize investments in domestic industry, particularly in sectors that will strengthen the manufacturing base and help Washington establish greater control over the supply chains that support military production. Second, the US should commit to reindustrialization to undercut China’s efforts to weaken the US. Chinese companies flood US markets with cheap or subsidized products in strategic sectors such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products. Finally, a return to a policy of energy dominance, which acknowledges the central role of fossil fuels until other sources can both meet energy needs and do so at a competitive price, would allow the United States to break out of a harmful cycle with China.
3. The US needs to recognize that part of an overmatch strategy is having more and better friends than one’s adversaries.
The United States already has an advantage here: it has more to offer potential allies than China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea. Washington’s adversaries have proxies, clients, dependents, and vassals rather than actual friends. Leaning into this advantage can yield economic benefits and investment opportunities, helping the United States disentangle from China. But to achieve overmatch, American allies need to be committed to actively restoring deterrence by developing hard military capabilities and prioritizing the integration necessary to ensure that US and allied militaries can fight together. Washington should also consider building political ties beyond its traditional partnerships. To get things done faster, it should emphasize bilateral engagement and small coalitions rather than trying to work through sprawling multilateral processes.
Quotes may be edited for clarity and length.
Go Deeper
As long as the United States refuses to check Iran militarily or present a credible alternative to Beijing’s promises, the axis of aggressors will continue to grow its influence in the Middle East. Read the latest installment of Hudson’s limited series Rising Axis to learn how Washington can fight back.
David Asher, who helped develop the US campaign of attacks against ISIS’s central bank and cash-distribution centers, explains why Washington needs to support Israel in targeting Tehran’s key leadership as well as its financial and logistical infrastructure.
Mary Kissel explains the social and economic levers the Chinese Communist Party uses to weaken the US and why this influence would matter in a US-China conflict.
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