Center for the Industrial Base

Reimagining government-industry collaboration to foster innovation, build capacity, and achieve victory.

CSIS’s Center for the Industrial Base (CIB), formerly the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG), provides impactful research on the ways in which the United States and its allies can collaborate more effectively with industry of all types and build their respective industrial bases. The center primarily focuses on 1) DOD and federal industrial base challenges, 2) government contracting trends in defense, civilian agencies, and international markets, 3) industry-government collaboration, and 4) international industrial cooperation. CIB monitors important developments in the global defense industry and produces major research projects and long-form reports; commentaries and articles in popular media; and annual conferences and livestream roundtables.

About the Center for the Industrial Base

Learn more about the CSIS Center for the Industrial Base and the experts and staff that contribute to our analysis.

Jerry McGinn
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Photo: MATTHEW WEINBERGER/DVIDS

Photo: MATTHEW WEINBERGER/DVIDS

Outlining the Challenges to U.S. Naval Shipbuilding

The U.S. naval shipbuilding enterprise struggles to produce ships at the scale and speed demanded despite being a bipartisan priority for successive administrations and Congress. The White House must tackle complex, longstanding challenges to improve shipbuilding capacity.

Report by Seamus P. Daniels, Henry H. Carroll, Cynthia R. Cook, Oliver Buntin, and Sarah O’Rourke — December 16, 2025

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Actualizing the "Arsenal of Freedom" | All About the Base

The CSIS Center for the Industrial Base is proud to launch the first episode of All About the Base, a video series examining key industrial base issues. The first episode explores Secretary Hegseth's plans for defense acquisition reform.

Event — December 15, 2025

Enabling Forward Sustainment

To reduce the risks relating to contested logistics in the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. Air Force should consider deepening maintenance and repair cooperation with Japan—leveraging its industrial strength to build a more resilient, forward-positioned sustainment capability.

Report by Cynthia R. Cook, Nicholas Szechenyi, Henry H. Carroll, Audrey Aldisert, Sarah Hendrick, and Javier Nater — June 26, 2025

Building a Mutually Complementary Supply Chain between Japan and the United States

Japan’s recent increases in defense spending and relaxation of defense export rules have prompted a new era of opportunity in defense industrial cooperation with the United States, specifically in the realm of uncrewed aerial systems and electro-optical sensors.

Report by Christopher B. Johnstone, Cynthia R. Cook, Audrey Aldisert, Leah Klaas, Christine Michienzi, Gregg Rubinstein, Gregory Sanders, and Nicholas Szechenyi — August 15, 2024

The Regulatory Linchpin of AUKUS

Recent changes to the United States' export control regime by the U.S. State Department and Commerce Department are a first step toward closer AUKUS integration, but more work is needed to support their successful implementation.

Commentary by Gregory Sanders and Henry H. Carroll — July 29, 2024

Readying NATO’s Defense Industrial Base for Its 100th Anniversary

In the future, NATO’s success will hinge on its ability to unify and modernize its defense industrial base, ensuring that allies can swiftly codevelop, coproduce, and maintain the interoperable systems needed to meet emerging threats.

Commentary by Audrey Aldisert and Cynthia R. Cook — July 8, 2024

Report Launch: Is NATO Ready for War?

Join the CSIS Europe, Russia, and Eurasia program and the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group for the report launch of “Is NATO Ready for War? An Assessment of NATO Allies’ Efforts to Strengthen Defense and Deterrence since the Madrid Summit.”  

Event — June 11, 2024

Is NATO Ready for War?

Allied leaders will soon gather in Washington for NATO’s 75th anniversary summit. Ahead of that historic meeting, this paper takes stock of the progress allies have made to strengthen their deterrence and defense since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Report by Sean Monaghan, Eskil Jakobsen, Sissy Martinez, Mathieu Droin, Gregory Sanders, Nicholas Velazquez, Cynthia R. Cook, Anna Dowd, and Maeve Sockwell — June 11, 2024