Manifest Destiny's Child: Integrated Deterrence
Examining the approach of US Armed Forces as they face the possibility of war.
General Thomas A. Bussiere spoke with confidence at the recently held 2023 Air and Space Forces Warfare Symposium in Colorado, as he spoke of “Integrated Deterrence,” the rock-solid strategy of the US military as it faces an ever increasing possibility of war. “Fundamentally, it’s all about combat credibility,” explained the General before adding that the strategy has the full support of the Air Force budget. But what does “integrated deterrence” actually mean?
The Center for a New American Security (cofounded by Biden Administration coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs) conveniently offers the following definition:
“Integrated deterrence seeks to integrate all tools of national power across domains, geography, and spectrum of conflict, while working with allies and partners.”
Isn’t this exactly what the Chinese and Russians are talking about when they claim that the United States is provoking conflict by surrounding their borders with military bases and submarines? Based on that definition, how different is “integrated deterrence” from global US dominance? Do the men and women in Washington truly expect to go around the world building military bases, overthrowing governments, and dissolving diplomatic alliances without any retaliation? Seemingly, the United States doesn’t believe in the idea of foreign retaliation: they genuinely believe in their self-appointed authority, and any pushback at all is an act of unprovoked aggression.
General Bussiere’s dedication to integrated deterrence became even more perplexing as he described the technological advancements made by both Russia and China’s nuclear weapons systems. Russia’s expanded nuclear arsenal, explained the General, has made “substantial modernization efforts” and has recapitalized 80% of their nuclear forces. As for China, Gen. Bussiere described the massive and generally successful efforts to modernize their military, commenting that China is “sprinting to parity with their nuclear force,” at a pace “we haven’t seen since the Cold War.”
Bussiere then went on to talk about the various missiles, planes, and other assorted means of destruction the US armed forces have at their disposal, presumably in an attempt to convince his audience (and perhaps himself) of America's ability to win the coming war. However, he failed to mention any goal of avoiding the use of such weapons altogether and how that might be achieved. Clearly, there is no such goal.
The critical situation the world now faces is not just the result of diplomatic incompetence, though that certainly plays a role. It is also the result of ill-founded global governance that prioritizes the interests of a small group of elites over those of individual nations and even humanity as a whole.
-The Shultz Report by M. Shultz
"Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds"
-the Bhagavad Gita, famously repeated by J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1945 upon the first successful detonation of the atomic bomb.