[wcm_nonmember]In this Dispatch… (360 words)
- Recent comments on the ongoing challenge posed by revisionist powers
- Geopolitical issues that affect the national security of the US
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State of the World: National Security Threats and Challenges
Senate Armed Services Committee
Selected Notes
General (Ret.) Petraeus:
- Sequestration has negatively affected military readiness
- Failure to pass timely defense budgets have negatively affected the military
- Agrees that there’s a present threat to the established international order
- ‘Revisionist Powers’ include the Islamic world, China, and Russia. (Analyst Comment: Revisionist Powers want to revise or remake the world order currently dominated by the West.)
- If America ceases to sustain the world order, then it will fail
- America’s global dominance is diminishing
- The US will have to work with China and other powers to reshape the world in cooperation, and not in conflict
- Eighty percent of the time when a status quo power (the US) is challenged by a revision power (China), there’s a conflict
- Sees the fight against extremist Islam as Muslims vs. Muslims, not Us vs. Them
- Information operations against the Islamic State are not working
Former Dep. Dir. CIA, McLaughlin:
- World currently experiencing the diffusion of powers; managing coalitions will be key to future success
- Demographics: the West is growing older and having fewer children. The rest of the world is young and poor.
- There’s a growing discontent with governance, re: Trump, Arab Spring, European nationalism
- Islamic State overall is weaker than before, however, their reach and influence still threatens Western nations
- Technological breakthroughs have allowed nefarious actors to weaponize technology
- Odds are high that North Korea will achieve nuclear ICBM status within four years
- The outcome of the Syrian conflict will change how the US, Turkey, Iran, and Russia are looked at internationally
- Europe is under a “real threat of collapse” as it stands due to economic, migrant/refugee issues
- China is moving swiftly to become most influential in Asia and bring Asian nations within its economic orbit
- Iran is still working on its nuclear weapons program; UN is not reporting violations of the US deal
- America is moving towards energy independence in the next 20 years, and will be a net exporter of energy
- Believes that America will not lose its strategic power, despite potential tactical and operational losses
- Putin needs an adversarial America to maintain popularity and nationalism, thus support for his military adventures
- Trump does not know the secondary and tertiary effects of his policies
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Photo via Luke Price
