Friday, January 19, 2018

Indrees Ali — U.S. military puts 'great power competition' at heart of strategy: Mattis

The U.S. military has put countering China and Russia at the center of a new national defense strategy unveiled on Friday, the latest sign of shifting American priorities after more than a decade and a half of focusing on the fight against Islamist militants....
“We will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists that we are engaged in today, but great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security,” Mattis said in a speech presenting the strategy document, the first of its kind since at least 2014.
It sets priorities for the U.S. Defense Department that are expected to be reflected in future defense spending requests. The Pentagon on Friday released an unclassified, 11-page version of the document, which did not provide details on how the shift toward countering China and Russia would be carried out. 
Unipolar world no longer. Back to the great powers, the great game, and the grand chessboard.

Actually, the US just now admitting the containment and destabilization strategy it has been pursuing for some time by surrounding Russia and China with allies and bases and attempting to foment regime change internally through covert operations.

Now the weapons are out on the table.

Back to the "good old days" of the Cold War.

Indrees Ali

4 comments:

Matt Franko said...

The investments for low intensity conflict/special operations (GWOT type ops) has been made since 2001 meanwhile the strategic systems now are in need of a tech refresh...

This document sounds like a framework that reveals DoD budget priorities over the next years... less on special operations and more on strategic systems... it provides guidance to the industry...

No biggie....

Tom Hickey said...

No biggie....

Unless one thinks that reigniting the Cold War and renewing the arms race is a biggie.

Matt Franko said...

Have to keep up with the Joneses Tom...

Noah Way said...

Every military proposal is about DoD budget priorities.