COLBY MUCH IN THE DEFENSE NEWS RE UKRAINE, NATO, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA AND AUKUS. 5/8 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
⏱️ 11 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 CBS Eye on the World. |
| 0:07.6 | Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:09.5 | Elbridge Colby, his new book, is The Strategy of Denial, American Defense in an Age of Great Power conflict. |
| 0:16.4 | This is the future based upon prologue, the past, about a contest between the great power, |
| 0:23.8 | the United States of America and the great power of the People's Republic of China. |
| 0:28.3 | We will also mention the great power of the Russian Federation. We will look to the EU and NATO, |
| 0:34.2 | but right now we're dealing with a scenario that is not here, and we do not welcome |
| 0:40.8 | it, but it's very likely possibility of all the choices in an armed conflict, which is |
| 0:48.7 | the People's Republic of China launching an invasion against Taiwan, a fatal complication, invasion. An invasion such |
| 0:59.5 | as was imagined by Mao, I'm told before the Korean War, many of the soldiers that wound up |
| 1:05.8 | counterattacking the American advance to the Yalu're scheduled to invade Taiwan, is the story. |
| 1:13.9 | We come now to the 21st century, and we start with denial defense, which is the best choice |
| 1:22.7 | for the U.S. and its coalition against China. We need definitions. Bridge, what is denial defense? How does it |
| 1:29.5 | work? A denial defense is basically the ability to deny China, its ability to subordinate |
| 1:36.8 | one of the members of the anti-hegemonic coalition, and in this case, Taiwan. So it's an, it's an |
| 1:43.1 | ability to keep Taiwan going on side, |
| 1:46.8 | on on on our side. And that's against, certainly against the punishment approach, which should be |
| 1:51.6 | easier, but also against that direct invasion. So the key to the Fet de Complea is successfully |
| 1:56.0 | affecting a Fetacquemplee is for the aggressor to seize and to hold the key territory, really, of a targeted country. |
| 2:04.7 | So, you know, if China decides to just seize and hold the two tiny offshore islands that Taiwan holds right across off the Chinese mainland, that's not going to get Taiwan to give up. |
| 2:15.2 | Also, if China lands on Taiwan but gets ejected before it can, you know, establish its hold, that's not going to get Taiwan to give up. Also, if China lands on Taiwan but gets ejected before it can, you know, establish its hold, |
| 2:20.3 | that's not going to work. |
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