Golden Dome and Strategic Stability
On November 19, 2025, CSIS Defense and Security Department experts will examine the ongoing debate over whether the Trump administration's Golden Dome initiative undermines strategic stability.
Analysis
In Depth Analysis, Commentary, and Publications
198 items, Page 1 of 20
Golden Dome: Loosen the gag order, and start talking
The Trump administration’s Golden Dome initiative is both strategically necessary and long overdue. It is also already in jeopardy of failure. The reason? A lack of dialogue and persuasion. If the Pentagon does not start explaining Golden Dome, it will never be built.
A House of Dynamite: Fact, Fiction, and U.S. Homeland Defense
On November 4, 2025, CSIS Defense and Security Department experts break down Netflix's "A House of Dynamite," exploring lessons learned, what it gets right and wrong, and how it can inform conversations about national security.
Russia’s Nuclear-Powered Burevestnik Missile: Implications for Missile Defense
Nuclear-powered cruise missiles are not a new idea—they’re just a bad idea. While Russia’s Burevestnik missile is grabbing headlines, it does not fundamentally change Russia’s ability to hold the U.S. homeland at risk or the strategic balance between the two states.
Countermeasures, Penetration Aids, and Missile Defense
In discussions on missile defense, the matter of countermeasures—decoy warheads and other deceptive missile payloads—is often invoked but insufficiently explored. For decades, popular commentators assumed that adversaries could readily develop countermeasures capable of defeating U.S. missile defense systems. With Russia and China having deployed missile defense countermeasures in their nuclear arsenals, it was assumed that...
Should the United States Extend New START Limits?
On October 10, 2025, CSIS Defense and Security Department experts discussed Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to abide by New START limitations for another year after the treaty expires in February 2026.
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Modernization
Today’s global threat landscape is accompanied by the advent of a new missile age, one defined by a surge in the global supply and demand for a broad and diverse spectrum of strike capabilities as well as the means to counter them.
MTCR Reform: What’s a Missile?
On September 24, 2025, CSIS Defense and Security Department experts discussed recent reform to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and their implications for strategic competition.
A Marie Kondo Moment for MTCR: Tidying Up the U.S. Approach to Missile Proliferation
New guidance for implementing the Missile Technology Control Regime will make it moderately easier for the United States to sell UASs to allies. But more fundamental reform is still needed to adapt the nonproliferation regime to today’s strategic environment.
War and the Modern Battlefield
The United States faces one of the most dangerous international security environments in recent history. While some aspects of warfare remain perennial, the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are showing how others are rapidly evolving on the modern battlefield.