Dual-Theater Competition: How the US Avoids Being Stretched Thin and Wins Where It Matters
by Khyati Singh
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11.01.2025 at 06:00am
Dual-Theater Competition: How the US Avoids Being Stretched Thin and Wins Where It Matters
At times, the strategic conversation of the United States appears to be a zero-sum bargaining exercise: push the majority of assets to the Indo-Pacific Region, do away with other theaters such as the Middle East. This is an incorrect template for questioning. The right approach is not about where to invest all the assets, but rather how to best organize American power and allied industrial capabilities so that the US can deter high-end war in the Indo-Pacific while also being meaningfully involved and resilient in other regions. The alternative, however, is brittle: either to be overcommitted or to invite strategic surprise.
The 2022 US National Defense Strategy explicitly laid out the core fact claiming China to be the primary pacing threat, and the Pentagon must work to build “enduring advantages” along with integrated deterrence to beat the odds. However, words alone cannot drive the country to success; doing so will leave it vulnerable to simultaneous crises. Therefore, the US must accept the fact that it need not, and in reality, cannot achieve every objective everywhere. Rather, it should opt for a balanced, deliberate strategy that gives primacy to deterrence in the Indo-Pacific while delegating risk and responsibility in other theaters through smarter burden sharing, a retooled industrial base, and a distributed force posture.
Three Pillars of a Resilient Defense Posture
Three concrete moves will produce leverage far greater than marginal increases in ship or brigade counts. First, around the First Island Chain, commit to a distributed force and decisively make investments in forward logistics. Dispersed allied forward-basing, distributed maritime operations, and resilient logistics make it difficult for an adversary to generate rapid strategic effects while allowing the US to sustain a protracted contest. The operational concepts are well-established but lack the political will and funding commitments necessary to harden hubs, pre-position supplies, or expand expeditionary maintenance and munitions capacity in allied ports. Distributed operations are not only a preferred mode for the Navy, they are the sinews of deterrence by denial.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/11/01/indo-pacific-deterrence-allied-industrial-ecosystems/
