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National Defense Strategy 2022

Title: National Defense Strategy

Published: March 28, 2022 / Unclassified version: October 27, 2022

Administration: Joseph R. Biden

Secretary of Defense: Lloyd Austin

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National Defense Strategy 2022 (unclassified version)

National Defense Strategy 2022 Fact Sheet

According to the unclassified fact sheet, “For the first time, the Department conducted its strategic reviews in a fully integrated way – incorporating the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and Missile Defense Review (MDR) in the NDS – ensuring tight linkages between our strategy and our resources.”

The strategy sets the following Defense Department priorities:

  1. Defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the PRC
  2. Deterring strategic attacks against the United States, Allies, and partners
  3. Deterring aggression, while being prepared to prevail in conflict when necessary, prioritizing the PRC challenge in the Indo-Pacific, then the Russia challenge in Europe
  4. Building a resilient Joint Force and defense ecosystem.

Expert Analysis of the 2022 National Defense Strategy:

CNAS has provided several reports as backgrounders for the National Defense Strategy. From July to December 2020, CNAS released papers on tough issues the 2022 NDS should tackle. The goal of this project was to provide intellectual capital to the drafters of the 2022 NDS, focusing specifically on unfinished business from the past several defense strategies and areas where change is necessary but difficult. See the reports here: https://www.cnas.org/the-next-defense-strategy

Atlantic Council published a report seeking to tackle seven of the most pressing questions about the forthcoming NDS.

Brookings provides a series of issues that to be addressed in the unclassified version of the NDS: