Vol. 57, January 2025
Key Points
The United States can no longer deter China
and Russia without building the capability and
capacity to make its threats credible. Denial of this
fact will almost certainly lead to a war between
great powers.
The incoming administration must urgently
initiate a comprehensive review of U.S. foreign
and defense policies, akin to the effort that led to
NSC-68 in 1950.
This initiative should focus on formulating a
holistic U.S. strategy that safeguards national
security goals and minimizes the risk of U.S.
forces becoming engaged in a great power war.
A significant increase in defense spending is
critical to counter the modernized and growing
forces of adversaries like Russia and China, but a
larger budget alone will not effectively address the
underlying issue.
The DOD is beset by structural deficiencies that
impede reform. Namely, the Goldwater-Nichols
Act established a structure in which key figures
responsible for national strategy development
and military readiness are excluded from the
chain of command.
Efforts such as the 2015 Third Offset Strategy
and the 2018 National Defense Strategy failed to
foster needed changes as a result of these internal
dynamics. DOD requires reorganization to remove
the systemic problems that have thwarted past
attempts at reform.
In light of the recent hostile maneuvers of actors like Russia, Iran, and
China, it is clear the system of deterrence relationships the United States fosters
to preserve global security is wavering. e U.S. military no longer has the
capability and capacity to defend the rules-based international order that has
long been the cornerstone of its foreign policy. In the near future, this failure of
deterrence could very well lead to a war between the United States and China.
Deciencies of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Reform Act (GNA) are a root
cause of under-resourcing our critical warghting forces. is legislation restructured
the DOD, resulting in a bureaucratic structure that severely restricts the ability of
the services to prioritize long-term strategic threats in favor of the immediate, non-
combat demands of the combatant commands and civilian defense bureaucracy.
Consequently, there is a pervasive pattern within the military of neglect of long-term
defense procurement strategies and requirements. e resulting failure of U.S. forces
to modernize and recapitalize has emboldened America’s adversaries to use violence
to pursue their expansionist goals, setting the United States on a path toward a great
power war. To prevent this and retain the current rules-based world order, the U.S.
government and defense establishment must immediately take four actions.
• Initiate a comprehensive reassessment of national security, objectively
evaluating the prevailing threat landscape and acknowledging the
shortcomings of existing strategies.
• Take immediate action to restructure the DOD and correct the
organizational deciencies that hindered past reform eorts aimed at
countering the threats posed by China and Russia.
• Increase the defense budget to bring it in line with the evolving security landscape.
• Evaluate defense capabilities and shift investment among the services based
on a cost-per-eect assessment. is requires a holistic review of the roles
and missions of service contributions to the National Defense Strategy.
Abstract
A Call for a New NSC-68 and
Goldwater Nichols Reform
by Richard B. Andres
Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
with Gen T. Michael Moseley, USAF (Ret.)
Former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force
and Maj Gen Larry Stutzriem, USAF (Ret.)
Director of Research at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
MITCHELL INSTITUTE
Policy Paper
