Rumsfeld Revisited: The US Third Offset Strategy

Abstract

Last November, the former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel launched the third offset strategy. Based on the exploitation of the American technological advantages, this initiative is aimed at widening the military gap between the United States and its prospective adversaries while ensuring the capability to project its military power everywhere around the globe regardless of the enemy's anti-access and area denial strategies. This article analyses the characteristics and potential effects of this strategy whose pillars resemble the transformation plans that ex Secretary Rumsfeld tried to implement un 2001 and whose achievement will guide the country's defence planning in the years to come.