diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
index 76b9386cc9550..d8f8a390677bf 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts
@@ -299,6 +299,7 @@ async function prepareAndExecuteChangeSet(
     StackName: deployName,
     ChangeSetName: changeSetName,
     ChangeSetType: update ? 'UPDATE' : 'CREATE',
+    IncludeNestedStacks: true,
     Description: `CDK Changeset for execution ${executionId}`,
     TemplateBody: bodyParameter.TemplateBody,
     TemplateURL: bodyParameter.TemplateURL,
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts
index 2b199ea225b87..d8eb55bf77eaa 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/test/api/deploy-stack.test.ts
@@ -164,6 +164,18 @@ test('correctly passes CFN parameters, ignoring ones with empty values', async (
   }));
 });
 
+test('correctly passes IncludeNestedStacks', async () => {
+  // WHEN
+  await deployStack({
+    ...standardDeployStackArguments(),
+  });
+
+  // THEN
+  expect(cfnMocks.createChangeSet).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.objectContaining({
+    IncludeNestedStacks: true,
+  }));
+});
+
 test('reuse previous parameters if requested', async () => {
   // GIVEN
   givenStackExists({
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts
index 7f65950550cb4..627dc150c36bf 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/cli/cli.integtest.ts
@@ -638,10 +638,13 @@ integTest('fast deploy', withDefaultFixture(async (fixture) => {
   const changeSet2 = await getLatestChangeSet();
   expect(changeSet2.ChangeSetId).toEqual(changeSet1.ChangeSetId);
 
-  // Deploy the stack again with --force, now we should create a changeset
-  await fixture.cdkDeploy('with-nested-stack', { options: ['--force'] });
+  // Deploy the stack again with --force. This creates a changeset which will be
+  // empty (since CFN now tracks changes into nested stacks as well), so we delete
+  // it again because it couldn't be executed anyway.
+  const output = await fixture.cdkDeploy('with-nested-stack', { options: ['--force'] });
   const changeSet3 = await getLatestChangeSet();
-  expect(changeSet3.ChangeSetId).not.toEqual(changeSet2.ChangeSetId);
+  expect(output).toContain('No changes are to be performed on');
+  expect(changeSet3.ChangeSetId).toEqual(changeSet2.ChangeSetId);
 
   // Deploy the stack again with tags, expected to create a new changeset
   // even though the resources didn't change.
diff --git a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts
index 75787ab7b747c..62a6abd08afce 100644
--- a/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts
+++ b/packages/aws-cdk/test/integ/helpers/cdk.ts
@@ -720,11 +720,9 @@ export async function installNpmPackages(fixture: TestFixture, packages: Record<
 const installNpm7 = memoize0(async (): Promise<string> => {
   const installDir = path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'cdk-integ-npm7');
   await shell(['rm', '-rf', installDir]);
-  await shell(['mkdir', '-p', installDir]);
+  await shell(['mkdir', '-p', `${installDir}/node_modules`]);
 
-  await shell(['npm', 'install',
-    '--prefix', installDir,
-    'npm@7']);
+  await shell(['npm', 'install', 'npm@7'], { cwd: installDir });
 
   return path.join(installDir, 'node_modules', '.bin', 'npm');
 });