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As the United States and its allies and partners face a more dangerous and uncertain world, the strategic imperative for cooperation has intensified. One of the greatest strengths of the United States has always been the nation’s connections with allies and partners. This is underpinned by robust defense industrial cooperation that strengthens partnerships, increases interoperability, and fills gaps in U.S. industrial capacity and capability. Working with allies offers an opportunity to surge production and contributes to deterrence. Yet despite the benefits, there are challenges that limit cooperation. When buying from the United States and working with U.S. industry on codevelopment and coproduction, allies and partners can run into a wide range of regulatory and other barriers.
This report takes a fresh look at the challenge of defense industrial cooperation through a direct survey of some of the United States’ closest industrial partners—those with a Reciprocal Defense Procurement Memorandum of Understanding. Survey respondents confirmed that building domestic capacity, deterring threats, ensuring interoperability, and building regional capacity are important goals when working with the United States. They highlight some particularly challenging U.S. processes, while recognizing that home country policies can also add friction. The report offers a number of actions that the United States could take to enhance defense industrial cooperation and facilitate exports.
This report is part of a project looking at U.S. relationships with key allies, conducted jointly with the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism (WITT) Program at CSIS. It was funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation.
