US defense strategy emphasizes uncertainty, preemption

The Pentagon on Friday released its annual National Defense Strategy that emphasizes agility to deal with strategic uncertainty and preventative actions, including pre-emptive strikes, to deal with potential crises.

Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith said at a news conference that three of the main ideas concerning the defense strategy are: the need to deal with strategic uncertainty; the value of early measures to prevent problems from becoming crises, or crises from becoming wars; and the importance of building partnership capacity.

The unclassified National Defense Strategy is the guidance for the Pentagon to implement the National Security Strategy issued in Sept. 2002. It also serves as the foundation for the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) process, expected to be completed by early next year.

Feith said the new defense strategy reaffirmed the key concepts that were the framework for the QDR of 2001, and also "incorporate lessons learned over the last four years."

"The world has changed very substantially since the end of the Cold War," he said." The kinds of structures that existed during the Cold War don't now exist. That's part of the reason that we're emphasizing strategic uncertainty."

Feith said "early measures," or preventive measures, were a critical component of active, layered defense. "These are all actions that are taken to prevent problems from becoming crises, as I said, and crises from becoming wars," he said.

Feith said the term "preventive" is not the same thing as preemption, but he defended the pre-emptive policy adopted by the Bush administration. "Under the most dangerous and compelling circumstances, prevention might require the use of force," he said.

The new defense strategy defines four strategic objectives, Feith said. The first is securing the United States from direct attack. The second is securing strategic access and retaining freedom of action for key regions and lines of communication and the global commons.

The third objective, he said, is strengthening alliances and partnerships. And the fourth is establishing security conditions conducive to a favorable international order.

At the news conference, Rear Admiral William Sullivan, vice director of the Pentagon's Strategy, Plans and Policy Office, also unveiled the parallel National Military Strategy. The military strategy makes operational guidance for implementing the National Defense Strategy.

"It talks about protecting the homeland, about preventing conflicts and surprise attacks, and about prevailing, in the event that we actually need to get into conflict," Sullivan said.

"The principles that are espoused stress agility, the ability to react quickly," he said. "And it really stresses jointness and integration, and as I mentioned, not just integration among the services, but integration with our friends and allies."

Source: Xinhua