Mara Karlin, the assistant secretary of defense for strategies, plans and capabilities, said the Department of Defense’s new National Defense Strategy will deal with existing and emerging threats posed by countries, including China, DOD News reported Friday.
The new NDS, which is expected to be released in early 2022, will focus on employing the concept of integrated deterrence to address national security threats from adversarial states while increasing collaboration with international allies and partners, said Karlin, who also performs the duties of deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.
“Every national defense strategy has to look at the force-planning construct — what is it that the military should be sized and shaped to execute? This national defense strategy, like the others, will, of course, have a force-planning construct,” Karlin explained during a virtual event hosted by the Center for a New American Security.
Integrated deterrence is about combining all the necessary tools of the U.S. military and civilian agencies to deter national security threats.
“The concept of integrated deterrence reminds us how it has to be really front and center to how we think about dealing with challenges,” said Karlin.
The NDS strategy is nested under the National Security Strategy and serves as the foundation for the other strategic documents, such as the Nuclear Posture Review and the Missile Defense Review.