COLBY MUCH IN THE DEFENSE NEWS RE UKRAINE, NATO, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA AND AUKUS. 4/8 The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict, by Elbridge A. Colby.
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
Elbridge A. Colby was the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the most significant revision of U.S. defense strategy in a generation. Here he lays out how America’s defense must change to address China’s growing power and ambition. Based firmly in the realist tradition but deeply engaged in current policy, this book offers a clear framework for what America’s goals in confronting China must be, how its military strategy must change, and how it must prioritize these goals over its lesser interests.
The most informed and in-depth reappraisal of America’s defense strategy in decades, this book outlines a rigorous but practical approach, showing how the United States can prepare to win a war with China that we cannot afford to lose—precisely in order to deter that war from happening.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel. |
| 0:04.1 | Elbridge Colby's new book is The Strategy of Denial, American Defense in an Age of Great |
| 0:09.2 | Power conflict. |
| 0:10.2 | We are speculating on a war that has not happened, that will not happen, that might happen, |
| 0:16.8 | which is China's move against Taiwan and the coalition built around Taiwan, |
| 0:21.7 | the loose or formal coalition that could be expected to react to an invasion or an attack or a blockade. |
| 0:30.4 | We've talked about punishment to get Taiwan to bend its knee. |
| 0:35.1 | However, there is also brute force, also known as conquest, something Napoleon |
| 0:40.8 | practiced, to set up a puppet government with his brother on the throne in Spain, for example. |
| 0:47.7 | And there is also fait accompli, so overwhelming brute force plus coercion, that the peoples of Taiwan have no choice except |
| 0:58.0 | when you're using Feta Completed versus coalition, which is the case here. This is not Taiwan |
| 1:04.1 | isolated. This is not Taiwan as Czechoslovakia in 1938. This is Taiwan in an anti-China coalition. This is fascinating to me, |
| 1:15.2 | Bridge, because you've thought through what happens when China takes on a coalition, which I can |
| 1:20.4 | presume Beijing has thought through. All right. They're going to move against the edge of the |
| 1:25.7 | coalition. That is Taiwan. |
| 1:27.7 | What advantage does that give them? |
| 1:29.8 | What does that mean for the coalition? |
| 1:33.9 | Right, exactly. |
| 1:34.9 | I think you put your finger on it, John, that Beijing's strategic problem is to collapse |
| 1:40.6 | the coalition without precipitating the very large war that would, in dubitably, |
| 1:44.7 | be very costly and risky and that they very well might lose, right? Normally being a |
| 1:48.6 | Klaus Witsian, and in this context, the direct application of military force is the most attractive. |
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