Beyond Nukes: The Lesser-Known Threats to the U.S.
The Pentagon is increasingly waking up to serious national security hazards that aren’t nukes, tanks and bombs. A leading expert explains what the U.S. needs to do about these non-traditional threats.
A photo collage featuring a doctor's hands holding a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine with various parts of photos in the background: a forest fire, a gasoline price sign, cans of food, doctors administering vaccine, an oil refinery and the Pentagon building.
Illustration by Anthony Gerace for POLITICO
By LEE HUDSON
12/14/2022 04:30 AM EST
In early 2020, the rapid spread of Covid-19 changed the lives of people around the world. But at the Pentagon, the virus carried a special warning.
“The pandemic was, in many ways, a wake-up call that we need to focus on military challenges and non-traditional threats,” said Anca Agachi, associate director for the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council who studies non-traditional threats. “It changed the meaning of security into a more expansive definition.”
Non-traditional security threats is a broad term, but it essentially means hazards not created by the military that can shape conflict. Think biothreats like Covid-19, but also climate change, irregular migration and food and energy insecurity. Also on the list, Agachi said: disinformation and tech coming out of the private sector.
As globalization makes the world more interconnected, we’re seeing more and more of these threats emerging, Agachi said. But while they affect U.S. national security in a big way, it’s not solely the job of the military to fix them. Often the solution comes from various agencies actually communicating with each other, which isn’t something the federal government is known for. Given that these threats could define the next century, “the U.S. will have to be significantly better at quickly anticipating some of these challenges,” Agachi said.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/14/new-national-security-threats-pentagon-00071052
