China has embarked on the largest military buildup in modern history, simultaneously targeting U.S. security and global hegemony. To prevent a cataclysmic great power conflict, American policymakers must urgently revitalize the nation’s industrial base and reignite manufacturing priorities.
In their new book Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III, Shyam Sankar—chief technology officer and executive vice president at Palantir Technologies—and Madeline Hart, a deployment strategist, argue that America’s defense industrial base has suffered critical failures. They pose two pivotal questions: What went wrong with America’s defense manufacturing? And can it be fixed?
These questions are existential. The fate of the United States and the free world hinges on their answers.
After the Cold War ended, the West fell into “dangerous delusions,” as Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently described. The U.S. and its allies assumed that all nations would become liberal democracies, trade and commerce would universally liberalize, and international law would resolve disputes without military force. But these assumptions proved false.
China, Russia, and their allies in Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere reject the Western vision of global order. Instead, they seek to dismantle the American-led system. While the West believed geopolitical rules were obsolete, their adversaries understood them well.
The U.S. outsourced critical national power—manufacturing—to China, which transformed itself into the “factory of the world.” This shift granted Beijing unprecedented leverage over global economies, including the United States. The cost is steep.
Contrary to popular belief, manufacturing and technology are not separable. By some estimates, China now possesses 232 times the shipbuilding capacity the U.S. has. In 2024 alone, one Chinese firm built more ships by tonnage than the U.S. produced in eight decades since World War II.
In a war with China, the U.S. would likely run out of critical munitions within weeks—perhaps even days.
The Allies won World War II thanks to America’s “Arsenal of Democracy.” As Joseph Stalin acknowledged in 1943, “American production, without which this war would have been lost.”
In February 1941, Winston Churchill appealed to an isolationist U.S. Congress: “Give us the tools,” he pleaded, “and we’ll finish the job.” Now, eight decades later, America is short on tools.
Sankar and Hart trace the decline of America’s defense industrial base back decades—through the interwar years, the Great Depression, and into the 1990s. They highlight systemic flaws in military procurement and platform development, from James Forrestal (the first secretary of defense) to Robert McNamara and his “Whiz Kids” in the 1960s.
Yet the book also celebrates visionaries who bucked the system. Thomas Jefferson observed: “A little rebellion every now and then is a good thing.” Andrew Higgins, creator of D-Day landing craft, faced Navy resistance but ultimately saved countless lives.
The authors stress that the Pentagon’s bureaucratic inertia often impedes progress. They argue that engineers must be deployed forward—not confined to distant offices—to innovate effectively.
America must act swiftly to rebuild its industrial capacity, leveraging its strengths in innovation and capital to avert a catastrophic conflict with China.