Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 10

Toward a Strong and
Sustainable Defense
Enterprise
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel

T

he U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is
undergoing a defining time of transition.
After 13 years of war fought by an all-volunteer force, we are reshaping our defense enterprise to adapt to a fiscal environment plagued by
constant uncertainty and declining resources, and
to a strategic environment shaped by a historic
realignment of interests and influences around the
world.
The Defense Department is grappling with
downward budget pressures, cumbersome le gislative constraints on how we manage our institution, and the unpredictability of both continuing
resolutions and the threat of sequestration. At
the same time, enduring and emerging powers are
challenging the world order that American leadership helped build after World War II. In the
Middle East and North Africa, the order within
and between nation-states is being recast in ways
that we have not seen for almost a century, often
leaving dangerous ungoverned spaces in their wake.
In West Africa, a virus one-thousand times smaller
than a human hair has, in less than a year, infected
over 17,000 people, killed over 6,000, and shaken governments and health care systems alike. In
Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents one
of the most blatant acts of state-on-state aggression
on that continent since the end of World War II.
And in the Asia-Pacific, competition between rising
Previous page: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel makes remarks
during the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library, Simi Valley, Calif., 15 November 2014.
(DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Sean Hurt)

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powers threatens to undermine the stability that
has allowed the region to prosper and thrive for
decades.
We are at the beginning, not at the end, of this
realignment. And as Henry Kissinger writes, only
“a subtle balance of restraint, force, and legitimacy”
will help forge a new order—an order that will be
years, and probably decades, in the making.1 This
means that DOD’s missions and focus will continue
to be marked, and defined, by transition.
As these dynamics unfold, the U.S. military is
addressing today’s crises and security challenges
around the world—degrading ISIL, helping stop
the spread of the Ebola virus, and reinforcing our
NATO allies.2 Few would have predicted these missions a year ago; uncertainty is the only certainty in
an interconnected world of 7 billion people.
The Defense Department must be prepared for
the challenges of that uncertain future. We face
the rise of new technologies, national powers, and
nonstate actors; sophisticated, deadly, and often
asymmetric emerging threats, ranging from cyberattacks to transnational criminal networks; as
well as persistent, volatile threats we have faced for
years.
Our long-term security will depend on whether
we can address today’s crises while also planning
and preparing for tomorrow’s threats. This requires
making disciplined choices and meeting all our
nation’s challenges with long-term vision.
That is what DOD is doing today. We are not
waiting for change to come to us—we are leading
change. We are taking the initiative, getting ahead
January-February 2015  MILITARY REVIEW