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Defense Secretary Ash Carter discussed the importance of
establishing and maintaining security networks with partner nations
to confront global threats during a speech to the Center for a New
American Security on June 20, 2016.
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Washington D.C., June 20, 2016 - Secretary of Defense Ash Carter
discusses the importance of establishing and maintaining
security networks with partner nations to confront global threats
during his keynote address at the Center for a New American
Security 2016 Annual Conference. (DOD photo
by U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz)
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Carter focused on the security networks the United States has
forged in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and in Europe.
Overall, such networks enable nations to act together to deter
conflict, provide protection and meet transnational threats such as
terrorism, the secretary said. “Now, security networking does differ
across regions,” he added, “and that makes sense, because each has
its own unique history, geography, politics and security needs.”
Networking for Security
The Asia-Pacific networks are based on weaving together bilateral,
trilateral and multilateral relationships into a larger, regionwide network, Carter said, noting
that there has never been a regionwide security arrangement there in
the past.
“In the Middle East and North Africa, we're leading
coalitions and networks to address key security challenges like [the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] and other terror groups, and
to counter Iran's malign influence,” the secretary said.
In
Europe, the United States is working within the NATO alliance to
bolster deterrence, handle unregulated migration and confront
threats in new domains.
“In each region, the basic principle
is the same,” Carter said. “We're bringing together like-minded
partners to enhance cooperation and build and strengthen
connections,” he said. “And in each region, the network needs a
networker -- a nation and a military to enable it.”
Connections
Connections take
many forms, the secretary said. “For one, we're sharing information,
including intelligence, in new ways, to allow our militaries to
communicate better and in real time so that we can work together
seamlessly and quickly,” he told the audience. “More and more, we're
leveraging persistent rotational forces that allow us to project
presence without the requirements of permanent footprints.”
The United States and its networked
allies also are improving interoperability to ensure that militaries
can work with and off of the same platforms, the secretary said.
The Asia-Pacific region has never had a grand alliance on par
with NATO, Carter noted.
“It has been the United States' and
the [Asia-Pacific] region's strong, but largely separate bilateral,
relationships that have helped ensure security and stability for
more than 70 years,” he said. “That's enabled countries throughout
the region to make incredible economic and human progress.”
Years of peace, stability and economic opportunity have enabled
Asia-Pacific nations to raise their standards of living -- including
China and India, Carter said.
“The U.S. role is in service of
a principled and inclusive network: a network in tune not only with
the times, but also the region's history,” he said. “The network is
principled because it stands for, and in defense of, the principles
our countries have collectively promoted and upheld for decades,
such as the freedom of navigation and overflight. And it's inclusive
because the network is aimed at no nation and excludes no one.”
Relationships
The United
States has leveraged bilateral relationships into trilateral and
multilateral relations, Carter said. The United States and Japan,
the U.S. and South Korea, the U.S. and the Philippines, the U.S. and
Australia, he said, all have set examples of ways to work together
for collective security.
The growing ties between the United States and India and the
United States and Vietnam also indicate realization in the region
for the need for a more collective approach, Carter said.
“These growing relationships demonstrate that nations across the
Asia-Pacific are committed to doing more to promote continued
regional security and prosperity,” the secretary said. “And they
show that the United States is using its unique capabilities,
experience and influence to stand with them and network [with] them
to meet common challenges and ensure continued regional security and
stability.”
Carter emphasized that America's relationships
across the Asia-Pacific region are not aimed at China.
“Although we have disagreements with China, especially over its
destabilizing behavior in the South China Sea, we're committed to
working with them and to persuading them to avoid self-isolation,”
he said. “That is one reason why we'll continue to pursue a stronger
bilateral military-to-military relationship with our colleagues in
China, including later this month at [the Rim of the Pacific
exercise], which China will participate in again this summer.”
Middle East
The security network in the Middle East and
North Africa has a totally different threat to confront, Carter
said, noting the United States is focused Iran and ISIL in the
region. He said the nuclear deal with Iran is working, but that Iran
continues its disturbing course in other ways.
“Because of
its reckless and destabilizing behavior in that part of the world,
the Defense Department remains full speed ahead -- in our
investments, our planning, and our posture -- to ensure we deter
Iranian aggression, counter Iran's malign influence and uphold our
ironclad commitments to our regional friends and allies, especially
Israel,” Carter said.
ISIL threatens U.S. interests and
allies in the Middle East and North Africa, and has inspired attacks
in the homeland, the secretary said. Carter described the strategy
to defeat the terror group and discussed the security network that's
centered on defeating terrorists.
“The U.S. military has also
been taking action abroad with a 30-member military coalition to
destroy ISIL's parent tumor in Iraq and Syria,” he said. “Beyond
those two countries, we're also building a transregional network of
anti-terror nodes to counter ISIL and other terror groups wherever
they metastasize -- in the Middle East, in North Africa, in South
Asia, or elsewhere.”
The counter-ISIL network, the secretary
said, has trained some 23,000 Iraqi security forces and provided
local partners with more than eight full brigade sets of equipment
-- including ammunition; small, medium, and heavy weapons; and
equipment to counter improvised explosive devices.
“For our
part, the Defense Department is bringing to bear in the fight
against ISIL every element of our military power: special operators,
conventional forces, air assets, intelligence and surveillance,
cyber and space capabilities, logistics and sustainment,” Carter
said.
Partnering With Others to
Fight, Defeat ISIL
President Barack Obama ordered the
military to accelerate operations against ISIL, and part of that
effort is predicated on encouraging network allies to do more, the
secretary said.
“We'll keep
adapting with our growing network and our strengthening network of
coalition partners,” he said. “Because the enemy frequently takes
the form of a network itself, it must be fought in that way.”
One important step involves Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Carter said, noting the
general has highlighted transnational threats since he took office
in October.
“We have to change how the Defense Department
works, and is structured, to ensure better transregional and
transfunctional integration and advice,” the secretary said, adding
that the responsibility for integration among the combatant commands
is inadequately supported by the formal authority of the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“That's why, in some of our
proposed improvements to the 30-year-old Goldwater-Nichols Act, we
want to clarify the role and authority of the chairman to, among
other things, help the secretary of defense synchronize resources
globally for daily operations around the world, enhancing the
department's flexibility and ability to move forces rapidly across
the seams between our combatant commands,” he said. “I want to
commend Chairman Dunford -- who has been leading these critically
important efforts.”
Europe has the strongest collective
security apparatus of any region anchored by NATO, the secretary
said. “NATO has for over 67 years been the quintessential example of
nations working together, and networking together, to respond to
security challenges,” Carter said.
But the alliance faces new
threats, such as from Russia and on Europe's southern flank, he
said. The alliance, he added, also is working in Afghanistan and
against ISIL.
Helping NATO Adapt to
New Challenges
“In the face of these challenges, the
Defense Department is helping NATO adapt and network so it can meet
and overcome this era's challenges to the interests and values of
this family of nations,” Carter said.
Russia is disturbing the peace in Eastern Europe, the secretary
told the audience. “The United States is taking a strong and
balanced approach to address Russia's aggression,” Carter said.
“We're strengthening our capabilities, our posture, our investments,
our plans and our allies and partners, all while still keeping the
door open to working with Russia where our interests align.”
NATO cannot continue using a 20-thcentury playbook, the secretary
said.
“That's why NATO's adapting and writing a new
playbook,” he said. “That playbook takes the lessons of history and
leverages our alliance's strengths in new, networked ways to counter
new challenges, like cyber and hybrid warfare, to integrate
conventional and nuclear deterrence, and to adjust our posture and
presence so we can be more agile and responsive.”
Networked
security will be key to defense moving forward, Carter said. He
noted that America has many friends around the globe with which to
network, while potential adversaries have few.
“These
inclusive, principled security networks will continue to contribute
to national, regional, and global security and help uphold the
principled international order,” the secretary said.
By Jim Garamone
DOD News
Copyright 2016
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