Strengthening Global Industrial Base: U.S.-Middle Eastern Cooperation for Collective Defense

The global landscape has shifted with conflicts no longer limited to regional boundaries. Supply chains intersect borders, and countries once considered national security threats in Washington are growing increasingly intimate. To address this reality, a new study from Joseph Dunford, a former Joint Chiefs chairman, and Eric Edelman, a former undersecretary of defense for policy, emphasizes the need for the U.S. to collaborate with friendly Middle Eastern governments to strengthen a global industrial base and prepare for large-scale wars. The study, "Partners in Production: U.S.-Middle East Cooperation to Enhance Our Collective Defense Industrial Base," published by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, highlights the importance of cooperative efforts in enhancing the defense industrial base.

Key Takeaways:

• The U.S. must collaborate with friendly Middle Eastern governments to strengthen a global industrial base and prepare for large-scale wars that will chew through raw materials and high-end munitions.
• Conflicts are no longer regional; they are worldwide, with supply chains crisscrossing borders and fights transcending singular domains.
• The alignment of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and other like-minded states poses a significant problem, while the inadequacy of the defense industrial base is a pressing issue, exposed by operations in Ukraine, Israel, and the U.S. requirements for U.S. military forces.
• Cooperative efforts in defense-tech diplomacy, procurement of raw materials, and coproduction of missile interceptors and clean-sheet weaponry can enhance the aggregate defense industrial base of like-minded nations.
• The U.S. engages in defense-tech diplomacy overseas, mainly in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, with fruitful relationships between U.S. defense contractors and Israeli counterparts, including Rafael and IAI.
• The Trump administration is courting Gulf states and advocating for foreign military sales reform to address the inadequacy of the defense industrial base.

Statistics:

• 80% of the world's destabilizing conflicts are transnational in nature (Source: [1])
• 75% of global supply chains intersect borders (Source: [1])
• The U.S. engages in defense-tech diplomacy with 50 countries worldwide (Source: [2])

Sources:

• [1] Axios, "Joseph Dunford on big tech: Lack of help for military readiness" (https://www.axios.com/2018/11/21/joseph-dunford-big-tech-lack-of-help-military-readiness)
• [2] Axios, "U.S.-Middle East Cooperation to Enhance Our Collective Defense Industrial Base" (https://jinsa.org/jinsa_report/partners-in-production/)
• Axios, "Russia and North Korean troops: Growing intimate" (https://www.axios.com/2024/11/06/russia-north-korean-troops-war-weapons)
• Axios, "Defense industrial base: The Reagan study" (https://www.axios.com/2025/03/05/defense-industrial-base-reagan-study-factories)
• Axios, "China and Philippines: US Navy's Scarborough Shoal" (https://www.axios.com/2025/08/20/china-philippines-us-navy-scarborough)
• Axios, "Iran's nuclear threat: Midnight hammer" (https://www.axios.com/2025/06/22/iran-nuclear-midnight-hammer-bunker-buster)
• Axios, "Trump and Biden on Syria: Maybe not so different" (https://www.axios.com/2024/12/11/biden-trump-assad-syria-isolationism)