The Department of the Air Force and Integrated Deterrence

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mazarr, Michael J.

Contributor:

Grill, Beth

Habib, Maggie

Language:

English

Place of Publication:

RAND Corporation 2024

Summary:

The U.S. Department of Defense's 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) outlines major concepts intended to guide U.S. defense planning and investment for years to come. The most important of those concepts is integrated deterrence, which represents an effort to improve warfighting effectiveness through greater integration and synergies both within the U.S. government and U.S. military services and between the United States and its allies and partners. All components of the U.S. defense system are now considering the meaning of this concept for their own structure and investments. This report offers insights into the role of the U.S. Department of the Air Force (DAF)—including the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force—in meeting the objectives of the NDS generally and the core concept of integrated deterrence specifically. In some ways, that connection is relatively straightforward and obvious. The DAF offers many capabilities critical to the execution of U.S. warfighting goals in ways that support the concepts of the NDS. But the particular emphasis of integrated deterrence might have less-obvious and more-interesting implications for the DAF as it seeks to redefine itself for a new era of international politics and military operations. This is especially true of one category of DAF activities and programs—engagement of allies and partners—on which the authors place particular emphasis in this report.