Terrorism no longer primary US concern, focus on competing with Russia & China: new Defense Strategy

Unveiling the Trump administration’s new National Defense Strategy, Jim Mattis said the main focus for US defense was competition with resurgent powers Russia and China which, he said, want to impose an authoritarian model of government on other nations.

“We are facing increased global disorder, characterized by decline in the long-standing rules-based international order—creating a security environment more complex and volatile than any we have experienced in recent memory. Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security,” says the summary of the new NDS published simultaneously.

The strategy says that the combination of “a robust constellation of allies and partners” and “a more lethal, resilient, and rapidly innovating Joint Force” will help sustain American influence.

He said that ISIS has been defeated, but “violent extremist organizations” including Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda continue to be a threat to America and a matter of concern for the Department of Defense.

But the most damage was done to the US military over the past 16 years not by an adversary but by the defense spending cuts and lack of predictability of the defense budget. Mattis called on US lawmakers to address that problem.

This is the first new National Security Strategy in almost a decade; the previous was published in 2008. See here for RT’s in-depth analysis of the document’s content.