IT is tempting to assume that we now face no serious threats to our national security. In fact, we face myriad dangers, different from and more complex than the threat posed by the old Soviet Union. Potential adversaries still include large states with powerful militaries whose future intentions are unknown (Russia and China); they also include rogue states such as Iraq, Iran, North Korea,and Libya, and non-state players such as drug cartels, crime syndicates, terrorist groups, and extremist cults.
Many of these non-traditional actors represent narrow political, cultural, or social forces. They don’t play by the old rules and are likely to behave far more recklessly than the traditional nation-state. A Saddam Hussein or a drug lord with a biological weapon in many ways poses a far more formidable threat than Khrushchev or Brezhnev ever did. In the information age, these players have access to technology that will allow them speedily to acquire alarming weapons capabilities. We face a transformed world where being unprepared may mean our national ruin.
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