The National Defense Strategy — the first new strategy in a decade — was released in 2018. It has two main goals:
1
To restore America’s competitive edge by blocking global rivals Russia and China from challenging the U.S. and our allies.
2
To keep those rivals from throwing the current international order out of balance.
Basically, it recognizes our reality: that we have competition. To deal with this, we need to keep the peace through strength by building on our military advantage and maintaining important regional balances of power.
The Defense Department has been hard at work to put the strategy into action. It now has its largest annual budget, which includes the biggest troop pay increase in nine years. Defense Secretary James N. Mattis has traveled to 58 countries to solidify existing partnerships and form new ones. DOD is conducting the largest consolidated audit in its history. Streamlined contracting and purchasing processes and other reform initiatives are making sure every tax dollar is spent wisely and in keeping with the National Defense Strategy’s three priorities: