The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

by Christian Brose

Do not think that these Americans are stupid, malevolent, or venal. Most are doing their best to do right as they understand it. They are elected officials trying to stand up for their constituents, who build or operate amazing capabilities for the US military and want to keep their jobs. They are military officers who believe in the utility of their current systems and that having more of them will make their troops more likely to succeed in their missions and return home safe and sound. They are business leaders who have a responsibility to do right by their workers and to make money for their shareholders, most of whom are ordinary Americans. The problem is not the people involved. Nor is it the mere existence of what John McCain used to call “the military-industrial-congressional complex” or what Donald Trump and others have more recently called “the swamp.” After all, that system is not going anywhere. The bigger problem is how power and incentives have come to be structured over many decades within America’s defense establishment. That structure overwhelmingly favors the present at the expense of the future.