Net Assessment New Denial Strategy? Assessing the 2026 NDS
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Jan 29, 2026 Kelly Grieco, a Stimson Center senior fellow on U.S. defense and Indo-Pacific alliances. She discusses the 2026 National Defense Strategy’s priorities, its take on burden sharing with allies, tensions between homeland/Indo-Pacific focus and global strike needs, and the document’s ambiguity on China, Taiwan, and force design.
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Priorities Without Resource Plans
- The 2026 National Defense Strategy prioritizes defending the homeland and deterring China while stressing burden sharing.
- It emphasizes realism and prioritization but provides few resource or implementation specifics.
Substance Missing Behind Big Claims
- Zack Cooper calls the NDS more strategic than the NSS but still inconsistent and unverifiable.
- He highlights claims like 'precipice of world war' and a rebuilt military that lack substance or matching investments.
Contradictions Undermine The Strategy
- Kelly Grieco welcomes prioritization of homeland and Indo-Pacific and rejects 'integrated deterrence' as DoD's organizing principle.
- She warns contradictions (simultaneity, burden sharing, global strike posture) undermine the strategy's coherence.