Key Points
1. US Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis released
the 11-page unclassied summary of National
Defense Strategy (NDS) on 19 January 2018.
2. Process of different strategy making follows the
sequence of National Security Strategy (NSS),
NDS and the National Military Strategy (NMS).
3. 2018 NDS underscores the importance of
technological innovation and development of
new capabilities. It insists upon a clear-eyed
focus on Russia and China as greater potential
threats than ISIS or Al Qaeda.
4. India does not have a NSS, NDS or a NMS.
The Defence Minister issues a highly classied
operational directive. A bottom up approach
seems to have been taken.
5. NSS, NDS and NMS should be issued by
National Security Council Secretariat, MoD
and Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff
respectively.
National Defence
Strategy of USA:
Where is India’s
National Defence
Strategy
The Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, is an autonomous think-tank dealing with national security and conceptual aspects
of land warfare, including conventional and sub-conventional conict and terrorism. CLAWS conducts research that is futuristic in outlook and
policy-oriented in approach.
Website: www.claws.in Contact us: landwarfare@gmail.com
ISSUE BRIEF
C
E
N
T
R
E
F
O
R
L
A
N
D
W
A
R
F
A
R
E
S
T
U
D
I
E
S
V
I
C
T
O
R
Y
T
H
R
O
U
G
H
V
I
S
I
O
N
CLAWS
March 2018No. 131
CENTRE FOR LAND WARFARE STUDIES
Introduction
The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis
released the 2018 National Defense Strategy
(NDS) summary during a speech at Johns
Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies on January
19, 2018. This is the rst National Defense
Strategy in nearly a decade. The last was
published under the signature of Bob Gates
in June 2008, during the latter days of the
Bush administration. The NDS replaces
the erstwhile Quadrennial Defense Review
(QDR). However, it differs in one crucial way:
the NDS is classied. The 11-page document
Mattis released is an unclassied summary of
what is likely a more detailed and far-reaching
strategic guidance document for the U.S.
Defense Department. The NDS is the military-
specic follow-up to the White House’s
National Security Strategy (NSS), released in
December, 2017.
The NDS is the second of three interlocking
documents that will drive America’s strategic
posture. In December 2017, President Donald
Trump unveiled his NSS, which drives the
Maj Gen P K Mallick, VSM (Retd.) has
been a Senior Directing Sta (SDS) at Na-
tional Defence College, New Delhi. He is
an expert in Cyber Warfare, SIGINT and
Electronic Warfare.
