T
he primary U.S. national security documents issued in 2022—the National
Security Strategy and unclassified National Defense Strategy (NDS) of the
Biden administration—have outlined a new core concept for achieving key
U.S. national goals: integrated deterrence, which the 2022 National Security
Strategy defines as “the seamless combination of capabilities to convince potential
adversaries that the costs of their hostile activities outweigh their benefits.”
1
As our
essay details, this is a proposal to better integrate U.S. investments, instruments of
power, and activities across multiple combinations of categories: the whole of its
government, domains, theaters, and allies and partners. Integrated deterrence is
not intended to be a new theory of deterrence per se, but rather an assessment of
what DoD must do to meet well-understood deterrence requirements. The 2022
NDS states that integrating capabilities and efforts to directly improve combat cred-
ibility represents the most plausible route to enhanced deterrent effects. The notion
is timely and needed: At a time when U.S. military predominance is ebbing and
the international system is more volatile, the need for and potential value of more-
integrated campaigns of statecraft are greater than at any time in the last 30 years.
While this specific phrase and elements of the concept are associated with
one set of national security strategies, integrated deterrence’s essential emphasis—
MICHAEL J. MAZARR, IVANA KE
Integrated Deterrence as a
Defense Planning Concept
C O R P O R A T I O N
Perspective
EXPERT INSIGHTS ON A TIMELY POLICY ISSUE
June 2024
