The United States faces a daunting set of grand strategic imperatives. China’s ascension and increasing collaboration with Russia challenge the U.S.-led world order in ways not seen since the Cold War. Threats from Iran and international terrorism remain as dangerous as ever. Meanwhile, U.S. defense planners cannot safely assume they will enjoy growing or even stable defense budgets in the future. How, then, can the United States focus finite resources on great power competition while addressing persistent threats emanating from the Middle East? A large-scale U.S. pivot out of the Middle East would not be prudent, but Washington can and must find a way to address persistent threats there economically. Where it serves the interests of both countries, greater integration of U.S. and Israeli military doctrine and weapons development represents a great place to start.
Therefore, the U.S. should pursue a discrete and cooperative dialogue with Israel as its committee takes shape. Congress has amended CFIUS’s mandate several times over the years to enhance its authority and address new risks. Washington should encourage similar adaptability in Israel. It will be especially important to better understand how exactly Jerusalem proposes to enhance protections against Chinese exploitation of Israel’s hi-tech sector. Whatever precise form this takes, U.S. intelligence sharing on entities with troubling connections to Beijing could prove enormously helpful, as could a sharing of FBI and other agencies’ best practices for educating the U.S. private sector on the dangers of adversarial foreign investment.
Purchasing finished weapons systems, such as Trophy, from one another that the other country develops independently is positive. However, deeper defense cooperation between the two nations could yield increased benefits. For example, if the U.S. and Israel had combined efforts on APS years ago, then DOD could have avoided the current capability gap it is now scrambling to fill. Therefore, the U.S. and Israel should consider establishing more systematic combined weapons research and development projects to together develop an array of cutting-edge military capabilities.
David Adesnik is director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish parliament, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.