This article explores policy options for rewriting the United States’ national security strategy, specifically the Unified Command Plan (UCP), using generative artificial intelligence (AI). The authors propose three options for reform: enhancing command structure for global engagement and competition, merging space, cyber, and information effects, and realigning geographic combatant command boundaries. These options aim to better organize the Department of Defense (DOD) and national security enterprise for competition short of war, improve synchronization, and reduce costs. The article emphasizes the need for a national security system that combines traditional security cooperation with new efforts to protect U.S. technology and economic access. The authors also suggest rethinking functional and geographic command structures, roles, and missions to manage long-term competition with China. The article concludes that the UCP rewrite is an opportunity to rethink the broken national security enterprise and that hard choices must be made to address the challenges of global competition.
Rethinking National Security
The UCP rewrite team could consider incremental options, such as focusing on global competition, for example, it could experiment with establishing a sub–unified command in each geographic command focused on integrating space, cyber, and information effects into ongoing operations.
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