What Does the 2022 NDS Fact Sheet Imply for the Forthcoming Cyber Strategy?

The two-page fact sheet summarizing the 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) is notable when considered from a cyberspace strategy perspective. Identifying campaigning as one way to advance Department of Defense (DoD) goals is consistent with lessons learned operating in and through cyberspace employing the concepts of defend forward and persistent engagement (DF/PE). Additionally, three of NDS's campaigning objectives - to gain advantages against the full range of competitors' coercive actions, undermine acute forms of competitor coercion, and complicate competitor's military preparations are objectives that DF/PE campaigning could support. Further, although a fourth objective mentioned in the NDS fact sheet - resilience - is not listed as an objective of campaigning, DF/PE has demonstrated that campaigning is critical to supporting anticipatory resilience in cyberspace, including ongoing efforts such as employing hunt forward teams to inoculate the U.S. public and private sectors from malicious cyber activity. In toto, such cyber campaigns support integrated deterrence by undermining an opponent's confidence that they will prevail in crisis or armed conflict. As the forthcoming cyber strategy is to be nested within the NDS, we should anticipate it supporting these same objectives. This essay elaborates on each from a cyber strategy perspective and offers an additional objective unique to cyberspace - precluding exploitation and/or inhibiting the cumulation of strategic gains in and through cyberspace.