Department of Defense Accomplishments (2009-2016): Taking the Long View, Investing for the Future

Abstract

Today, the Department of Defense must prepare for and meet five major, unique, and rapidly evolving challenges. We are managing historic change in the Asia-Pacific �" the single most consequential region for America's future. We are countering the prospect of Russian aggression and coercion, especially in Europe. In the face of North Korea's continued nuclear and missile provocations, we are improving our nuclear and conventional deterrent capabilities. We are checking Iranian aggression and malign influence in the Gulf, and protecting our friends and allies in the Middle East. And we are conducting an aggressive global campaign against terrorists and other violent extremists, while accelerating the certain and lasting defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), destroying its parent tumor in Iraq and Syria, and everywhere else it metastasizes around the world �" even as we help protect our homeland and our people.