Re-examining National Missile Defense Strategy: Defending Against China
Files
Download Full Text
Description
Dr. Kathleen Ellis, a Senior Policy Fellow in the INSS Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, 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.
Document Type
Article
Region(s)
Asia, Indo-Pacific
Topic(s)
Defense Policy, Future Strategic Concepts, National Security, Nuclear Deterrence and Escalation, Strategic Competition
Publication Date
5-2025
Publisher
National Institute Press
City
Fairfax, VA
Keywords
National Missile Defense, China, Indo-Pacific, U.S. Deterrence, Strategic Stability, Homeland Defense, Nuclear Strategy, Near-Peer Adversary
Recommended Citation
Ellis, Kathleen, "Re-examining National Missile Defense Strategy: Defending Against China" (2025). WMD Occasional Papers. 13.
https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/wmd-occasional-papers/13