Section Ⅰ：National Security in the Post Cold War Era

Introduction

The Cold War is behind us.TheSoviet Union is no longer the threat that drove our defense decision-making for four and a half decades that determined our strategy and tactics，our doctrine，the size and shape of our forces，the design of our weapons，and the size of our defense budgets-is gone.

Now that the Cold War is over，the questions we face in the Department of Defense are：How do we structure the armed forces of the United States for the future？How much defense is enough in the post-Cold War era？

Several important events over the past four years underscore the revolutionary nature of recent changes in the international security environment and shed light on this new era and on America’s future defense and security requirements：

In 1989，the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe precipitated a strategic shift away from containment of the Soviet empire.

In 1990，Iraq’s brutal invasion of Kuwait signaled a new class of regional dangers facing America-dangers spurred not by a global，empire-building ideological power，but by rogue leaders set on regional domination through military aggression while simultaneously pursuing nuclear，biological，and chemical weapons capabilities. The world’s response to Saddam’s invasion also demonstrated the potential in this new era for broad-based，collective military action to thwart such tyrants.

In 1991，the failed Soviet coup demonstrated the Russian people’s desire for democratic change and hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union as a national entity and military foe.

In the aftermath of such epochal events，it has become clear that the framework that guided our security policy during the Cold W