The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict

Elbridge Colby was the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the most significant revision of U.S. defense strategy in a generation. Here he lays out how America's defense must change to address China's growing power and ambition. Based firmly in the realist tradition but deeply engaged in current policy, this book offers a clear framework for what America's goals in confronting China must be, how its military strategy must change, and how it must prioritize these goals over its lesser interests.

The most informed and in‑depth reappraisal of America's defense strategy in decades, this book outlines a rigorous but practical approach, showing how the United States can prepare to win a war with China that we cannot afford to lose—precisely in order to deter that war from happening.

Elbridge Colby is co-founder and principal of The Marathon Initiative, a policy initiative focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. Previously, Mr. Colby was the Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, where he led the Center's work on defense issues. In that role, he served as the lead official in the development and rollout of the Department's preeminent strategic planning guidance, the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which focuses the Department on the challenges to U.S. military superiority posed by China and Russia and therefore prioritizes sustaining the Joint Force's warfighting edge against these major power competitors. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.