Defense XXIV

Reworking U.S. and Allied Defenses to Deal with the Multi-Polar Authoritarian Challenge

By: Robbin Laird

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

"Defense XXIV" is a valuable resource for defense professionals, policymakers, and students of international security. Its strength lies in providing ground-level insights from military leaders and defense experts rather than purely theoretical analysis.

The book makes a compelling case that Western democracies face a strategic inflection point requiring new thinking about force structure, alliance cooperation, and technological innovation. By capturing multiple perspectives on these challenges, it offers readers a nuanced understanding of how defense establishments are adapting to a more complex security environment.

The book provides a number of key foci:

Comprehensive Global Coverage: The collection provides insights on multiple security theaters, from Ukraine and the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific region, offering readers a truly global perspective on contemporary defense challenges.

Timely Analysis: The work captures the fluid nature of 2024's security environment, including Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, China's assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, and evolving defense strategies across NATO.

Focus on Allied Perspectives: Rather than taking a purely U.S.-centric approach, the book examines how various allies are responding to common threats, particularly highlighting Nordic defense integration and European security dynamics.

Practical Technology Assessment: The sections on emerging defense technologies and concepts like distributed operations provide concrete examples of how militaries are adapting to new threats.
Several important themes emerge throughout the book:

Multi-Polar Authoritarianism: The book frames today's security challenges not simply as great power competition but as a struggle against diverse authoritarian powers with varying objectives but common anti-democratic tendencies.

Nuclear Weapons Evolution: Several contributors highlight how today's nuclear dynamics differ fundamentally from the Cold War era, with multiple nuclear states whose strategic calculations don't always align with Western frameworks.

Maritime Kill Web Paradigm: The book presents compelling analysis of how naval warfare is evolving toward a more distributed, networked approach incorporating both crewed and uncrewed systems.

Allied Integration: Significant attention is given to how allies are working together through initiatives like Nordic defense cooperation and interoperable combat systems.

Strategic Redesign: Rather than merely updating legacy systems, the book argues for fundamental rethinking of defense postures to address new threat environments.

The book is the latest volume in our annual review of defense developments based on extensive interviews.