The Future of Deterrence in Asia and its Implications for U.S. Force Structure
Presented by Elbridge Colby

Thursday, May 8, 2014

The Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) is sponsoring a talk entitled "The Future of Deterrence in Asia and its Implications for U.S. Force Structure." Following the lecture there will be a question and answer session. This is open to the Laboratory.

Trends and events in Asia indicate that deterrence is both increasingly relevant but also being increasingly challenged in the region. North Korea's continuing assertiveness and developing nuclear weapons and missile programs and, more broadly, China's growing ambitions and impressive military modernization efforts are both fundamentally altering the strategic landscape in the region, with significant implications for U.S. interests and for those of U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific.

Elbridge Colby of CNAS will discuss the rising challenges to U.S. extended deterrence in Asia, with particular reference to China and North Korea, and will outline the implications of these challenges for U.S. nuclear and broader strategic policy and for U.S. force structure and posture.

Elbridge Colby is the Robert M. Gates Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he focuses on strategic, deterrence, nuclear weapons, conventional force, intelligence, and related issues. In 2012, he served as the deputy head for national security personnel on the Mitt Romney pre-transition effort and also worked on several of the campaign's security policy teams. From 2010 to 2013 he was a principal analyst and division lead for global strategic affairs at CNA. Before that, he served for over five years in the U.S. Government, including as policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense's Representative for the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, as an expert advisor to the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, as a staff member on the President's Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding WMD, with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and with the State Department. Colby also serves or has served as a consultant to a variety of U.S. Government entities on a range of defense and intelligence matters. Colby is a frequent commentator and author on defense and foreign policy issues. He is a recipient of the Exceptional Public Service Award from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and of the Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards from the Department of State. A term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and co-chairman of the Washington, D.C. Advisory Committee of the Hamilton Society, Colby is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

The Future of Deterrence in Asia and its Implications for U.S. Force Structure

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) sponsored this talk entitled “The Future of Deterrence in Asia and its Implications for U.S. Force Structure” by Elbridge Colby, fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

LLNL-VIDEO-656734