Global Security Challenges

Global security challenges are the threats and conflicts that shape how the United States positions its military, diplomacy, and intelligence agencies abroad. This area covers the tools and strategies the federal government uses to prevent catastrophic attacks, manage dangerous rivalries between nations, and respond when wars or health emergencies threaten American interests or allies.

Weapons and deterrence. A central and enduring worry is the spread and potential use of the world’s most destructive weapons. This includes how agencies detect and respond to nuclear, chemical, or biological threats, covered under Weapons of Mass Destruction and Nonproliferation, as well as the diplomatic history and ongoing debates over treaties limiting arsenals, found in Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control. For background on how presidents and military planners have handled these dangers since the atomic age began, see How U.S. Leaders Have Learned to Manage Nuclear Threats Since 1945.

Wars and stability efforts. Armed conflicts around the world regularly draw in American diplomacy, aid, or military involvement, a pattern explored in Regional Conflicts and Wars. When fighting winds down, international forces are sometimes deployed to keep the peace, a distinct and often misunderstood mission described in Peacekeeping.

Alliances and health threats. Much of American security depends on partnerships with other nations, including long-standing military alliances whose future is periodically debated, as discussed in Leaving NATO: Will America Exit Its Oldest Alliance?. Security threats are not only military: outbreaks of disease can destabilize regions and require coordinated international response, the subject of Pandemics and Global Health Security.