Dr. Kathleen Ellis, CSWMD Senior Policy Fellow, authored a National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) Occasional Paper titled, Re-examining National Missile Defense Strategy: Defending Against China.

Dr. Ellis argues that the United States needs a stronger national missile defense posture in response to China's rise as a nuclear-armed near-peer adversary. The paper challenges the long-held notion that keeping the U.S. homeland deliberately vulnerable preserves strategic stability, contending that China's rapid nuclear expansion shows that this policy of voluntary vulnerability is no longer tenable.

Dr. Ellis suggests that adopting a more robust homeland missile defense posture could promote stability by reinforcing U.S. deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and assuring allies.

Read the paper →