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 To view meeting: https://youtu.be/9-H75bW_too February 28, 2023. – We had the honor welcoming Lt. Col. Phillip Inigo, from the US Army War College, to our breakfast meeting to discuss our current Russia and China military strategy. Twelve months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as China pushes to increase its nuclear, space and cyber forces, the Pentagon outlined a sweeping new strategy on that called for more robust deterrence at an increasingly tense moment in international security. “The P.R.C. and Russia now pose more dangerous challenges to safety and security at home, even as terrorist threats persist,” the Lt. Colonel said, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China. We face two strategic challenges. The first is that the post-Cold War era is definitively over and a competition is underway between the major powers to shape what comes next. No nation is better positioned to succeed in this competition than the United States, as long as we work in common cause with those who share our vision of a world that is free, open, secure, and prosperous. This means that the foundational principles of self-determination, territorial integrity, and political independence must be respected, international institutions must be strengthened, countries must be free to determine their own foreign policy choices, information must be allowed to flow freely, universal human rights must be upheld, and the global economy must operate on a level playing field and provide opportunity for all. The second is that while this competition is underway, people all over the world are struggling to cope with the effects of shared challenges that cross borders—whether it is climate change, food insecurity, communicable diseases, terrorism, energy shortages, or inflation. These shared challenges are not marginal issues that are secondary to geopolitics. They are at the very core of national and international security and must be treated as such. The Lt Colonel cited several new challenges to strategic stability, including hypersonic weapons, advanced chemical and biological weapons, and emerging warheads and delivery systems for conventional arms and tactical nuclear weapons. That threat became more evident in the past several weeks amid signs that Mr. Putin’s commanders may be preparing the ground for a sharp escalation in the war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin has threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons. By leveraging our national strengths and rallying a broad coalition of allies and partners, we will advance our vision of a free and to improve the lives not just of Americans but of people around the world. |