Strategic Vision
Strengthening America by Aligning What Makes It Strong
A modern framework for power in a contested world
The Challenge: Strategic Competition as a Defining Frame
- We are living through the most consequential global realignment since World War II. China’s rise, Russia’s aggression, the erosion of global norms, and the fraying of public trust are converging to test the foundations of American leadership.
- This is not a contest of weapons alone.
- It is a contest of systems—economic, technological, institutional, and civic.
- To prevail, the United States must do more than assert its values or expand its budget. It must ensure that its strengths are aligned and integrated—across sectors, across institutions, and across alliances.
Why DIME No Longer Suffices
- For decades, national strategy was framed through the DIME lens: Diplomacy, Information, Military, and Economic power. Later versions expanded it to DIMEFIL, adding Finance, Intelligence, and Law. These frameworks were forged when America was the unchallenged unipolar power—militarily dominant, technologically unrivaled, and economically preeminent.
- They focused on how overwhelming power could be projected.
- But the world has changed. The rise of peer competitors, systemic shocks, and hybrid threats demand a different question:
- How is enduring strength generated, sustained, and aligned across systems?
- That’s the shift GRIPS enables—from projection to preparation, from dominance to durability, from power in reserve to power in use.
Introducing GRIPS: A New Framework for National Power
- To meet this challenge, Mark Kennedy developed GRIPS—a modern, capability-based framework that reflects how real-world advantage is generated, coordinated, and sustained.
- GRIPS stands for:
GRIPS is not a static list—it is a strategic system. Each pillar depends on the others. Without trust in institutions, innovation can’t scale. Without resilience, supply chains break. Without narrative coherence, alliances erode. Without strategy, power fragments.
Coming to GRIPS Means Minding the Gaps
- To truly come to GRIPS with national power is to move beyond surface metrics and understand how misalignment weakens strength.
- That’s why Kennedy pairs GRIPS with a strategic imperative: Mind the Gap.
- Mind the Gap is a call to expose and address the hidden fractures between capabilities:
- Between pillars (e.g., innovation racing ahead of governance)
- Across institutions (e.g., private sector progress disconnected from public purpose)
- Across alliances (e.g., uneven infrastructure or digital standards)
- GRIPS reveals how nations falter not from lack of investment, but from lack of coordination. Minding the gap means identifying and fixing those misalignments before adversaries exploit them.
Strategic Vision in Action
Mark Kennedy’s leadership reflects this conviction: power must be integrated to endure. He has applied the GRIPS lens across every sector in which he has led:
- In Congress, he helped shape bipartisan strategies to enhance trade, rebuild infrastructure, and strengthen post-9/11 national resilience
- As a university president, he modernized research and digital systems, expanded affordability, and secured major advancements in research capability and student success
- Through the Wahba Institute, he works to align industrial strategy, AI governance, infrastructure finance, and democratic alliances—bridging silos across government, academia, and the private sector
- As a Civic Leader for the U.S. Air and Space Forces and a Senior Fellow at CNA, he advances whole-of-nation strategies for deterrence and innovation
- His commentary and convenings engage leaders at institutions such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Boston Global Forum
The Path Forward
- America’s edge cannot be assumed—it must be rebuilt through strategic coherence. In a world where threats are hybrid and power is interdependent, leadership must do more than manage silos. It must align them.
- This means governing with integrity that earns public trust, innovating at the speed of change while securing what matters most, and building alliances that are not just symbolic, but synchronized. It requires a strategy that connects capabilities to purpose—and ensures that each investment reinforces the whole.
- The path forward lies not in more programs, but in smarter alignment.
- Not in louder rhetoric, but in stronger trust.
- Not just in leading—but in leading with clarity, connection, and courage.
GRIPS + PIVOT: A Twin Lens for Strategic Clarity
- To compete in this new era, GRIPS must be paired with PIVOT. Where GRIPS sets the strategic agenda, PIVOT serves as a diagnostic tool—helping institutions map exposure and advantage across key dimensions such as market presence, regulatory leverage, technological capacity, and shapeholder trust.
- Together, they provide a 360° view: GRIPS clarifies what must be prioritized; PIVOT reveals where strengths can be leveraged and gaps must be addressed.
From the Frontiers of Freedom Blog
Seeing Clearly in a Contested World
- How GRIPS and PIVOT offer a 360° lens for national and institutional strategy