More nuclear weapons do not necessarily mean greater security, and a trade-off between next-generation conventional and nuclear weapons is almost inevitable unless defense budgets are completely open-ended.
In an unprecedented attack in September 2019, Iran struck the expansive Saudi oil processing facility at Abqaiq and the oil fields at Khurais with armed drones and cruise missiles.
Russia has not only been modernizing its nuclear triad; it has also been developing new types of nuclear systems.. Russia, of course, is not the only nuclear threat to the United States. China has accelerated its nuclear buildup to the extent that
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Reviewed by Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley (Ret.)
Cipher Brief Expert
Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley, Jr. (Ret.) is a career Army intelligence officer having served over thirty-six years on active duty. He retired from the Army in November 2020.
He final assignment was as the 21st Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from October 2017 to October 2020 where we reported directly to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security and the Secretary of Defense.
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America is bereft of a strategic vision to replace what it had in the Cold War. And where there is no vision, as the Book of Proverbs says, the people perish.” – Author Tim Weiner