Great Power Pivot: U.S. Shifts Focus to War With China and Russia

Dave Majumdar

Security,

"Today, we are faced by a resurgent, revanchist Russia and a rising China."

President Barack Obama’s 2017 defense budget proposal refocuses the Pentagon on great power conflict—or in other words, Russia and China. Both nations are becoming more aggressive along their peripheries, which means that even as the United States continues to cooperate on certain issues with both countries, Washington must be prepared to compete with Moscow and Beijing over the next twenty-five years.

“The most significant shift in the future security environment—and that is a return to an era of great power competition,” Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said during a press conference at the Pentagon on February 9. “Today, we are faced by a resurgent, revanchist Russia and a rising China. Both are nuclear-armed powers. Both are fielding advanced capabilities at a rapid rate. Both are permanent members of the UN Security Council, and both take issue with some aspects of the principled international order that has preserved stability and enabled the peaceful pursuit of prosperity for decades.”

As such, the administration is requesting a total of $582.7 billion—$523.9 billion in the base budget and $58.8 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO). The total conforms to the Congressional Bipartisan Budget Agreement (BBA) that was reached in 2015.

According to Work, the United States—as directed by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter—will focus on three items to address the challenges. “First, we should prioritize strengthening our conventional deterrent against the most advanced potential adversaries. When doing so, he didn't expect us to match advanced adversary capabilities, either numerically or symmetrically,” Work said. “He instead told us to offset their strengths using new technological, operational and organizational constructs to achieve a lasting advantage and to strengthen deterrence.”

Moreover, the Pentagon will focus on the quality and capability of its forces rather than the size of those forces. As Work explained: