The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
Winning the Undersea Knife Fight: A Deterrence Framework to Shape Subsea Dilemmas into Competitive Maritime Security Strategies
English Summary
The report argues that the undersea domain represents a critical, vulnerable battleground for geopolitical competition, threatening trillions of dollars in global energy and communication infrastructure. Due to the low observability, high impact potential, and chronic difficulty in attributing sabotage (e.g., pipelines, cables), this domain requires a deterrence framework distinct from conventional maritime or cyber strategies. Policy recommendations center on implementing an operationally formalized approach that links the quality of attribution to feasible response pathways. This framework helps decision-makers calibrate deterrent postures and identify critical policy and capability gaps necessary to credibly deter malign activity beneath the waves.
中文摘要
本報告指出，海底領域已成為地緣政治競爭中一個關鍵且脆弱的戰場，威脅著數兆美元的全球能源和通訊基礎設施。由於其可觀測性低、潛在衝擊極大，以及難以歸因破壞行為（例如管線和電纜）等固有難點，此領域需要一套區別於傳統海軍或網路戰策略的嚇阻框架。政策建議的核心是實施一種操作化方法，將歸因的可靠性與可行的應對路徑連結起來。此框架有助於決策者校準嚇阻態勢，並找出必要的政策和能力缺口，從而能夠對深海中的惡意活動進行可信的威懾。
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