Critics across the spectrum say the strategic blueprint ordered up by President Biden and outlined by Pentagon officials Monday falls far short of its own self-described mission: to reorient the U.S. military to face what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calls the "pacing threat" posed by a rising China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Critics across the spectrum say the strategic blueprint ordered up by President Biden and outlined by Pentagon officials Monday falls far short of its own self-described mission: to reorient the U.S. military to face what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calls the "pacing threat" posed by a rising China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Benjamin H. Friedman (<a href="http://twitter.com/BH Friedman" target=" blank">@BH Friedman</a>) is the policy director at Defense Priorities. He was previously a research fellow in defense and homeland security studies at the Cato Institute and a doctoral candidate in political science and an affiliate of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He writes about counter-terrorism, homeland security and defense politics, with a focus on threat perception. He is co-editor of "US Military Innovation since the Cold War: Creation Without Destruction." He is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
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By Hollie McKay | May 3, 2021 | 6:02pm EDT
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) – In a dramatic twist in diplomacy, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced that Riyadh is seeking a “good and special relationship” with the kingdom’s longtime nemesis, Iran. Privately, the two adversaries are reported to be in behind-closed-door talks, a noted departure from the prince’s stance in an interview four years ago, when he asked, “How do you have a dialogue with a regime built on an extremist ideology?”
The Sunni and Shi’a countries have long been at odds, both seeking to leaders in the Islamic world. But after Iranians attacked the Saudi Embassy in Tehran in 2016, tensions rose to new heights, with proxy conflicts and tit-for-tat infrastructure attacks putting not just the region but also much of the world on edge.