Today's D Brief: State of Defense 2021; Side deal with Taliban?; Blinken to Ukraine; France’s sci-fi red teams; And a bit more.
By Ben Watson and Kevin Baron
April 30, 2021 10:47 AM ET
The D Brief
This week, we heard the president’s take on America’s “State of the Union.” But what about its state of defense? President Joe Biden was elected on a promise to return the U.S. to its standing as a respected global leader through stronger alliances, reduced military interventions and greater cooperation.
“Now comes the hard part: the details,” writes Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron. For example, “No major line-item changes — from end strength to the nuclear modernization plan — are expected in the White House’s first budget request, due next month,” Baron writes.
But one useful way to look at the U.S. military’s likely near-term future is POTUS46’s list of threats to the nation from that Wednesday address to a joint session of Congress. “After the pandemic and climate, Biden listed China and Russia, and only then mentioned Afghanistan,” says Baron. “It’s remarkable that the country to which the U.S. military has given the most attention in the past 20 years has become the fifth-ranked item in a presidential address. And it reflects the changed priorities of the American people and their elected political leaders.”
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/04/the-d-brief-april-30-2021/173726/
