In Which I Dispose of Another Defense-ism

"Rapidly changing global threat environment."  This phrase appears often in defense literature.  It's not accurate.  The global threat environment has changed only incrementally over the past two decades.  Many things have not changed.  Iran supporting Hezbollah.  Proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology.  North Korea.  Terrorists.  Low-intensity warfare.  Deterrence.  

 

The big changes since the 1990's are that Al Qaeda came to our attention, we established a huge presence in the Middle East and Central Asia, North Korea and Iran got closer to the bomb, and India and Pakistan went nuclear.  

The global threat environment is changing in long, broad trends, not in short little hops.  Usually references to "rapid change" in global security are used to explain the United States' slowness in adapting to 4th generation warfare.  Unfortunately, the cause of the mismatch between U.S. capabilities and global security requirements must be sought elsewhere.