The Joint Force is at an inflection point during what will be a decisive decade.
Geopolitical relationships are shifting, economies are rising – and falling, rapid
technological advances are fueling militaries’ modernizations at scale, andexternal factors like climate change and pandemics are changing the way people
live, work, and go to war. An undeniable and intentional violation of sovereignty
has shocked the international system. Large-scale combat has now been
introduced into the strategic competition between autocracies and democracies,
further stressing the rules-based international order.
For the first time in our Nation’s history, the United States faces two major nuclear powers that may employ
nuclear coercion as a way to meet their national objectives. Both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) andRussia possess the will and the means to pose an existential threat to our way of life. The PRC is our mostconsequential strategic competitor, modernizing its military and preparing to fight and win a war with the UnitedStates. Russia poses acute threats, pursuing power and influence through cyber-attacks and disinformation
campaigns, while its attack on Ukraine represents a moment on par with 9/11 in terms of global consequence andchallenge to U.S. and international security.
The current environment requires the Joint Force to strengthen and integrate deterrence across domains,theaters, and the spectrum of conflict; modernize the nuclear enterprise; assure allies and partners; and prepare toprevail in great power conflict. The United States must meet this challenge with alacrity, discipline, and fortitude– the window to seize the strategic initiative is now. This National Military Strategy (NMS) is a wakeup call:Adapt Now, or Lose Later.
This NMS renews our focus on campaigning now and building and sustaining warfighting advantage in tandem.
Both are critical to prevail in war, and both are necessary to preserve the peace. War is a terrible endeavor, andGreat Power War is especially terrible – but it is not inevitable, so our Nation strives for peace. As the U.S. doesso, its Joint Force will defend, deter, modernize – and prevail if deterrence fails – realizing that the surest way toprevent escalation and war is always being prepared to defeat our Nation’s foes.
The time is now and the window of strategic opportunity we have is closing. What we do in the next few years isgoing to set conditions for victory or defeat in the next war. We must adapt now in order to win the next war, andby doing so, we will deter the war from happening in the first place.

MARK A. MILLEY
General, U.S. Army

1

The 2022 NMS is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s (CJCS) strategic guidance that provides the logic andframework to achieve the 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) priorities and build the future Joint Force. ThisNMS offers guidance for every Active Duty, Reserve, National Guard, and civilian member to take bold andtransformative action now to protect the security of the American people and defend the democratic ideals at theheart of the American way of life. This strategy is about the Joint Force obtaining lasting positions of relativeadvantage in peace and achieving decisive victory in war.

 THREATS. The classified NMS clearly describes thenear and real threats faced by the Joint Force in thestrategic environment. As our most consequentialstrategic competitor, the PRC is unequivocal in its
pursuit to reshape an authoritarian world order with nodemocratic values. The PRC is the pacing challenge
for the Department. Russia is an acute threat withaggressive intent – as seen by its brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine – that seeks to consolidate
and strengthen its perceived Eurasian sphere of influence to counter Western influence. Other persistent
threats include North Korea, Iran, and violent extremist organizations.

 GEOPOLITICAL TRENDS. Amidst institutional andeconomic fragility and the ongoing health crisis,
adversaries will test the post-World War II international
order, attempting to weaken U.S. leadership and rewriteinternational rules and norms to their own benefit.

 ECONOMIC TRENDS. Growing economic strength TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS. Both commercialand military technologies will advance rapidly andproliferate the global technology landscape. These
capabilities alone may not ensure military victory, but
creative application will shape the outcome of anycontest.

 EXTERNAL TRENDS. Pandemics, climate change,

demographic changes, and resource scarcity willdestabilize the security environment and imposechanges and constraints on domestic political contexts.

 MILITARY TRENDS. For the first time, the UnitedStates will simultaneously contend with two major
nuclear powers. Future warfare will include advanced
threats to the Homeland, elements in the Gray-Zone,
and protracted conflicts in contested environments.
Militaries that incorporate new technology withinnovative operational concepts and develop leadershipto harness the changes will create decisive advantage.

drives global influence and undergirds other elementsof national power, which will continue to fuel thePRC’s coercive actions.

The nature of the problem the 2022 NMS aims to solve is meeting the Joint Force Strategic Objectives in the contextof the strategic environment. The solution to the problem is informed by the NDS’ strategic approach. The result is atheory of success that allows the Joint Force to operate from an advantageous position with respect to threats,
maintain awareness of strategic trends, remain in line with civilian guidance, and advance toward our objectives.

So how does the Joint Force rapidly develop future warfighting advantage while deterring
effectively today, with the PRC as the pacing challenge?
This is the central military problem this NMS seeks to solve.

2The NDS strategic approach employs three strategic ways (integrated deterrence, campaigning, and building enduring advantage) to foster Integrated Deterrence. Aligned with the NDS, the NMS implements Integrated Deterrence
through ruthless prioritization to calibrate decision-making and activities of the Joint Force now in order to succeed.

Integrated Deterrence, the NDS’ principal strategic approach, generates warfighting advantages by synchronizing
operations across warfighting domains, theaters, the spectrum of conflict, instruments of national power, theinteragency, private sector, and allies and partners.
Integrated Deterrence influences adversary decision calculus by affecting perception of costs, benefits, andconsequences of restraint.
The Joint Force’s contribution to Integrated Deterrence is combat-credible forces, backstopped by a safe, secure, andeffective nuclear deterrent.
Through the NMS’ theory of success, the Joint Force contributes to Integrated Deterrence to reduce an adversary’sperceived benefit and increase the adversary's perceived cost of aggression, incentivizing restraint as a result.

“You want to deter your potential opponent from even thinking or contemplating that they could havea war with the United States.”
General Milley, CJCS

(Brookings Institution, 2 December 2020)

3

The NMS seeks to solve the central military problem within the framework of the NDS through an informed theoryof success that enables disciplined decision-making by framing risk and assessing progress toward strategic objectives.
The NMS Theory of Success is to exercise Strategic Discipline to continuously calibrate Joint Force weight of effortbetween campaigning and rapidly building warfighting advantage to deter now and reduce future risk.

Strategic Discipline is the ruthless prioritization and calibration of Joint Force operations, activities, and investments,
consistent with policy guidance and strategic aims, between the Joint Force strategic ways of campaigning andbuilding warfighting advantage.
Strategic Discipline is enabled by a robust understanding of the strategic environment, including a deep awareness of
our adversaries and ourselves, ally and partner equities, and the future character of warfare. This understanding isenhanced by strategic assessments that enable risk decisions to bias toward decreasing future risk. This approachprovides the Joint Force with the agility to focus on enduring priorities and generate military options for emergent
changes.

Campaigning
Campaigning is how the DoD sequences
day-to-day defense initiatives and develops
advantageous conditions to deter conflict,accomplish strategic objectives, and prevail
against adversaries across the spectrum ofconflict, to include the Gray-Zone.

Building Warfighting Advantage
Building Warfighting Advantage requires
deliberate investment to develop leaders,concepts, and capabilities through materiel
and non-materiel solutions in order toachieve strategic objectives in the future.

RiskAssessments

To implement the NMS effectively, the Joint Forcemust take a globally integrated approach to risk while
thinking across multiple time horizons. Decisionmakers must consider transferring risk away frompriority threats/theaters and be more risk tolerant in
the present to reduce risk in the future.

Joint assessments guide the Chairman’s militaryadvice and the balance of resource decisions between
future modernization and current requirements. These
assessments guide iterative adjustments to implement
NDS Defense Priorities and Joint Force Strategic
Objectives.

4

1. STRENGTHEN HOMELAND DEFENSE
Modernize and integrate to protect our way of life.
2. ENHANCE DETERRENCE
Develop capabilities that deter adversaries from advancing
their goals, employing their military strengths, or attacking
U.S. interests.
3. PREPARE TO WIN
Ensure a properly trained and resourced combat force capableof defeating our adversaries abroad.
4. INTEGRATE JOINT FORCE AND COMBINEDEFFORTS
Synchronize actions with allies, partners, and the interagency
to address trans-regional, all-domain, and multi-functional
challenges and continuously advance national security
objectives.
5. LEVERAGE OPPORTUNITIES IN CAMPAIGNING
Proactively identify and leverage opportunities to frustrate
adversaries’ strengths, exploit vulnerabilities, and expand U.S.
partnerships, access, and basing.
6. REINFORCE DIPLOMACY
Support diplomatic efforts to preserve the rules-based
international order and provide credible military options thatenable leaders to interact from a position of strength.
7. STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS WITH ALLIES AND
PARTNERS
Seek opportunities to collaborate and improve interoperability
with allies and partners to confront enduring and emerging
challenges. Foster strong relationships now — because wecannot surge trust in crisis.
8. PRIORITIZE CONCEPTS AND RESOURCES
Refocus our current warfighting ideas, systems, and practices
to improve combat effectiveness.
9. BUILD A RESILIENT JOINT FORCE
Harness robust and effective combat capabilities that can
resist degradation and quickly reconstitute in future combat.
10. INTEGRATE CAPABILITIES RAPIDLY
Timely integrate advanced capabilities to amplify existing
warfighting advantages.

“We are now in the seventy-sixth year of the great-power peace following World War II and the structure is understress. We can see it fraying at the edge. And with history as our guide, we would be wise to lift our gaze from thenever-ending urgency of the present and set the conditions for a future that prevents great-power war.”
General Milley, CJCS(US Air Force Academy Graduation, 26 May 2021)

5

Defend the U.S. Homeland against all-domain threats, prioritizing the PRC.

Deter strategic attacks and other aggr ession against the United States,allies, and partners.

Ensure the Joint Force possesses the combat-credible capabilities necessary
to prevail in conflict against the PRC in the Indo-Pacific, then Russia in Europe.

Focus technical and non-technical modernization into a r esilient J oint
Force and maintain the ability to respond to crises.

To meet the challenges described, now and in the coming decisive decade, this strategy outlines the Joint
Force’s vision to deter, and if necessary, to defeat potential adversaries now and into the future. We’re atan inflection point, requiring the Joint Force to exercise Strategic Discipline to sustain and strengthen
Integrated Deterrence – we must Adapt Now, or Lose Later.
The success of this strategy depends on the innovation and discipline of the Joint Force and its leaders at
every rank. Future Joint Force success – like the past – will continue to be anchored by the American
people and our values, the U.S. government, and our allies and partners. The Joint Force will defend, deter,
modernize – and prevail if deterrence fails.

6