Read the Report – The CNAS Asia-Pacific Security Program released a new edited volume on the future defense of Korea. The volume, edited by CNAS Asia-Pacific Security Program Director Dr. Patrick M. Cronin, is entitled Breakthrough on the Peninsula: Third Offset Strategies and the Future Defense of Korea and makes a series of recommendations for the next Administration. Those recommendations include:
- The next administration needs to formally engage the Republic of Korea (ROK) in sustained Third Offset strategic planning.
- The U.S. and ROK militaries should concentrate on developing quick hits, such as fully exploiting current technological capabilities, to complicate North Korean planning and demonstrate the capability to fight limited war and shoot down mass missile salvos.
- Washington and Seoul should expand the scope of the U.S.-ROK alliance planning with respect to technology and innovation.
- U.S. defense officials need to keep in mind that ultimately the alliance is only as strong as its people and intangibles such as trust and credibility.
- Over the long term, the bigger challenge for the United States in preserving its power-projection capabilities is not likely to be North Korean missiles but Chinese anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
A series of authors contributed to the volume, in Dr. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr.; Dr. Hyeong-wook Boo; Lt. Gen. In-bum Chun, ROKA (Ret.); Dr. Chung Min Lee; Seongwon Lee; Dr. Daniel A. Pinkston; Dr. Mira Rapp-Hooper; and Dr. Michael Raska.
