The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices

YCAPS is proud to partner with the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies(ICAS) to co-sponsor this upcoming book talk with author Eyck Freymann titled "The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices"

The US military stands at a moment of profound risk and uncertainty. China and its authoritarian partners have pulled far ahead in defense industrial capacity. Meanwhile, emerging technologies are reshaping the character of air and naval warfare and putting key elements of the US force at risk. To prevent a devastating war with China, America must rally its allies to build a new arsenal of democracy. But achieving this goal swiftly and affordably involves hard choices.

The Arsenal of Democracy is the first book to integrate military strategy, industrial capacity, and budget realities into a comprehensive deterrence framework. While other books explain why deterrence matters, this book provides the detailed roadmap for how America can actually sustain deterrence through the 2030s—requiring a whole-of-nation effort with coordinated action across Congress, industry, and allied governments.

Rapidly maturing technologies are already reshaping the battlefield: unmanned systems on air, land, sea, and undersea; advanced electronic warfare; space-based sensing; and more. Yet China’s industrial strengths could give it advantages in a protracted conflict. The United States and its allies must both revitalize their industrial bases to achieve necessary production scale and adapt existing platforms to integrate new high-tech tools.

You can find the book available on Amazon here

To join use this link to register with Zoom

You will need the link and passcode provided in the confirmation email.

Speaker:

Eyck Freymann is a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University, where he directs the Allied Coordination Working Group. He is also a Non-Resident Research Fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, the Institute of Geoeconomics in Tokyo, and the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College.

Dr. Freymann works on strategies to preserve peace and protect U.S. interests and values in an era of systemic competition with China. He is the author of several books, including the forthcoming Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China (Oxford, 2026), The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices (Hoover, 2025), and One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World (Harvard, 2021). His scholarly work has appeared in The China Quarterly and is forthcoming in International Security.

Format: Questions are encouraged during the live event. The Zoom session will be run by ICAS and co-moderated with YCAPS

Registration: Required Link

Moderators: Robert Dujarric, Temple University Japan, John Bradford, Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies

Webinar Cost: Free of charge

Co-Sponsor: Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), Temple University Japan Campus