Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

Current Affairs, Official Policy

Obama’s New Defense Plan: Drones, Spec Ops and Cyber War: Wired

Big policy news.

On Jan. 5th, 2012, Spencer Ackerman reported for Wired on the Obama administration's new defense strategy.  According to the article, the strategy will place greater emphasis on developing cyberwar capabilities.  The article cited President Obama as saying that the US military will increasingly rely on "intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, countering weapons of mass destruction, and operating in environments where adversaries try to deny the US access." 

Conversely, the US military will transition away from Cold War weapons systems and counterinsurgency strategies.  All of this, of course, in the backdrop of cutting $487 billion from the Pentagon's budget over the next 10 years. 

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Bloomberg also reported on President Obama's new defense strategy.  The Bloomberg article noted that the new US military strategy will emphasize cybersecurity.

The new military strategy will also emphasize Asia.

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Bill Gertz also weighed in for the Washington Times.  I'm interested in this focus on Asia.

The article noted that the strategy "will solidify efforts to refocus on countering China's growing arsenal of missiles, submarines, cyber-weapons and other forces designed to push U.S. forces out of the region."

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All three articles explore the ramifications of this strategy shift in a lot more depth.  I just focused on the cyber aspect.  There's a lot more there, so I recommend checking them out. 

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