US News and World Report quotes Vice President and Brent Scowcroft Center Director Barry Pavel on the multitude of national security threats facing the United States:

“You’re hearing a cacophony of views, because it’s almost unpredictable,” says Barry Pavel, a former senior national security adviser to presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and longtime Pentagon policy official. He cites, for example, the “fantastical scenario” a decade ago that the Russian military would act belligerently and march on a foreign country. What may have been considered a fringe forecast turns out to have been pretty accurate.

[…]

“The threats are additive,” says Pavel, now with the Atlantic Council. “We can’t say, ‘This one is more important than that one.’ We have to address five or six threats.”

“You engage in the process. You make sure you allocate resources both for investing in future capabilities, but also dealing with the here and now of our military exercises and work with allies and partners.

In short, he says, “you have to do it all. Which makes it difficult.”

Read the full article here.

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