The issue for Congress is how U.S. defense funding levels, strategy, plans, and programs should respond to the shift in the international security environment. Congress's decisions on these issues could have significant implications for U.S. defense capabilities and funding requirements. New International Security Environment

			Observers Conclude a Shift Has Occurred

World events in recent years—including Chinese actions in the South and East China Seas and Russia's seizure and annexation of Crimea in March 2014 —have led observers, particularly since late 2013, to conclude that the international security environment in recent years has undergone a shift from the post-Cold War era that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also sometimes known as the unipolar moment (with the United States as the unipolar power), to a new and different situation that features, among other things, renewed great power competition with China and Russia and challenges by these two countries and others to elements of the U.S.-led international order that has operated since World War II. For additional discussion, see Appendix D .

		Some Emerging Implications for Defense

			Defense Funding Levels

The shift in the international security environment has become a major factor in the debate over future U.S. defense spending levels. Renewed Emphasis on Grand Strategy and Geopolitics

Discussion of the shift in the international security environment has led to a renewed emphasis on grand strategy and geopolitics as part of the context for discussing U.S. defense budgets, plans, and programs. Nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence. U.S. and NATO military capabilities in Europe. Capabilities for high-end conventional warfare. Maintaining technological superiority in conventional weapons. Reliance on Russian and Chinese components and materials. Hybrid warfare and gray-zone tactics .
World events in recent years have led observers, particularly since late 2013, to conclude that the international security environment in recent years has undergone a shift from the post-Cold War era that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also sometimes known as the unipolar moment (with the United States as the unipolar power), to a new and different situation that features, among other things, renewed great power competition with China and Russia and challenges by these two countries and others to elements of the U.S.-led international order that has operated since World War II.
The shift in the international security environment has become a major factor in the debate over future U.S. defense spending levels, and has led to new or renewed emphasis on the following in discussions of U.S. defense strategy, plans, and programs:
grand strategy and geopolitics as part of the context for discussing U.S. defense budgets, plans, and programs; nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence; U.S. and NATO military capabilities in Europe; capabilities for conducting so-called high-end conventional warfare (i.e., large-scale, high-intensity, technologically sophisticated warfare) against countries such as China and Russia; maintaining U.S. technological superiority in conventional weapons; speed of weapon system development and deployment as a measure of merit in defense acquisition policy; minimizing reliance in U.S. military systems on components and materials from Russia and China; and capabilities for countering so-called hybrid warfare and gray-zone tactics employed by countries such as Russia and China.
The issue for Congress is how U.S. defense funding levels, strategy, plans, and programs should respond to the shift in the international security environment. Congress's decisions on these issues could have significant implications for U.S. defense capabilities and funding requirements.