President Trump wants America to win wars without fighting. It's possible and here's how

As the threat from China continues to grow, many Americans are wondering how our government left us so devastatingly vulnerable to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) drug embargo, or how we left our private and confidential information so vulnerable. I wonder why we remain so vulnerable to the greatest theft of public property. in history. They are used against electromagnetic pulses, an attack method that the world's best militaries and homeland security officials use to shut down most of the country's electrical circuits and have the potential to erase nearly all data on all hardware. , wondering how we can leave our power grid so vulnerable. driving and causes an estimated 100 million lives to be lost.

The answer lies in the U.S. government's failure to develop an integrated national security strategy. An integrated strategy calls for a “whole-of-government” approach that leverages all instruments of power, including material means such as military force, trade, and finance, and non-material means such as public diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and counterinfluence. used.

Each of these is like an instrument in an orchestra. And individual instrumentalists must understand this and not play the trumpet when the symphony prescribes the harp. This requires each player to work with other instruments and be an integrated strategic thinker. And composers and conductors need to know what all the instruments are.

FBI and CISA say Chinese hackers have breached multiple U.S. communications providers in targeted attacks

Unfortunately, the federal government rarely has a coherent strategy, and leaders know which instruments of power to use and when to use them, especially less commonly used instruments such as cultural intelligence and offensive deception operations. are often ignorant about. Thankfully there are exceptions. The National Security Council only occasionally develops such strategies. The Pentagon does so, but only mobilizes weapons, supplies, and personnel. Virtually all other cabinet-level departments ignore or deemphasize integration strategy.

In the 1980s, the U.S. military faced a crisis of bureaucratic balkanization that weakened America. In 1986, the Goldwater-Nichols Act ended this situation by forcing strategic integration between military branches and overcoming inter-military conflicts and lack of effective coordination. Similar legislation is needed today to ensure that civilian agencies cooperate with each other and with the Department of Defense. Only then can all federal agencies work together and be greater than the sum of their parts, allowing the United States to protect our nation and more effectively project power around the world. .

It's been more than 20 years since President George W. Bush declared that we were in a “war of ideas” against radical Islamism. But there is no significant sphere of influence in which the United States has successfully won the war of ideas against violent jihadists. One reason for this is that the United States has not fully committed to ideological warfare as a form of anti-radicalization.

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Authoritarian Russia is unflinchingly engaged in global activities. And the Chinese Communist Party is leveraging its vast economic, propaganda, and political power to gain ever-increasing global influence. All of this makes the American people and our global interests less secure. This is largely due to government agencies not investing time and resources to develop “thought warriors” and practitioners of other neglected skills who can protect the nation.

Some so-called experts say that once economic sanctions are exhausted to punish an enemy, there is no other option but to use force. However, this is incorrect. There are many unused and non-motor means of conflict. U.S. officials must consider the use of force before deciding to use force to protect our nation's vital interests. This is what we did to collapse the Soviet empire without a war.

The answer lies in the U.S. government's failure to develop an integrated national security strategy. An integrated strategy calls for a “whole-of-government” approach that leverages all instruments of power, including material means such as military force, trade, and finance, and non-material means such as public diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and counterinfluence. used.

That's why the incoming Trump administration will strengthen government-wide coordination and give neglected organizations like Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which manages Radio Free Asia, much needed support. We should enact a private version of the Goldwater-Nichols Act to make investments. Several others include Freedom Radio, the State Department's Global Engagement Center, and the CIA's Covert Intelligence Operations. We have many tools at our disposal, from international broadcasting to political warfare to psychological strategy.

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When asked recently how the United States should respond to China's years of large-scale information warfare and strategic influence operations against American interests, the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command said, “We will not do that.'' “No,” he answered.

He was right. We don't do that, but we should.