COLBY MUCH IN THE DEFENSE NEWS RE UKRAINE, NATO, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA AND AUKUS. 7/8 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
⏱️ 12 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. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm John Batchel. |
| 0:07.0 | Elbridge Colby, the author of The Strategy of Denial. |
| 0:10.0 | This is imagining the future, and a contest between the coalition led by the United States |
| 0:17.0 | against the hegemon, China, and China's aggression towards Taiwan and or the |
| 0:23.9 | Philippines and or the rest of the coalition. There is now a disaster scenario, and the denial |
| 0:31.4 | defense obliges everyone to react in dire fashion. What is it that can keep the denial defense from failing, or what is a predicate for the coalition |
| 0:44.0 | after the failure or during the contest in which either side could win or lose? |
| 0:49.5 | I believe that's what we can now talk about as the binding strategy. |
| 0:56.5 | I'm very carefully reading Fonklaozsvitz because of you, Bridge. And I find, thanks to your emphasis, Fonklazvitz |
| 1:03.3 | talked a lot about psychology and about the resolve, the morale, the ambition, the passion of the contestants. |
| 1:14.5 | I believe that's part of the binding strategy. How so? |
| 1:18.4 | No, I think you put your finger on it, John, right? |
| 1:20.7 | The issue that Clausewitz, of course, was a master of is that, you know, the strength |
| 1:27.3 | itself is not the only sort of factor that's relevant |
| 1:31.7 | here. The question is how much and how avidly are the combatants prepared to dedicate that, that |
| 1:37.3 | amount of strength, right? The France under the Bourbons in 1785 or something, the fervor of the French nation was much more |
| 1:46.1 | modest, right? Whereas six, seven years later, with the Leve en masse and the mass popular |
| 1:53.1 | support for the Revolutionary armies and the defense of the nation and so forth, you know, |
| 1:57.1 | suddenly France was putting out a whole different type of military strength and |
| 2:02.0 | ambition and aggressiveness. And so, so the question here to put the point on it is, you know, |
| 2:08.6 | in this more difficult, much more difficult and challenging in a costly military situation, |
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