News | April 19, 2016

The Emerging Global Security Environment

By Charles Lutes, Elaine Bunn and Stephen J. FLanagan

What trends will define the global security environment through the second decade of the 21st century? A fair question, to be sure, but not one that the United States grapples with very easily. As a democratic society, America’s time horizons tend to be short. Washington’s natural proclivity is to connect judgments about trends and policy choices to the electoral calendar—in this case, to the results of the 2008 election. Yet there is no reason to suppose that the country’s most pressing strategic challenges could be made to fit neatly into electoral cycles. Each of the challenges analyzed in this volume took time to emerge; none is fully amenable to solution in the near term. As a point of departure, therefore, it is essential to take a longer view of the key trends that shape the way these challenges are perceived and ultimately addressed. READ MORE >>