Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment

Annual Estimate

Academic Year 2025–26 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment

The Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment serves as a guide
for academics and practitioners in the defense community on the current
challenges and opportunities in the strategic environment.

Annual Estimate Archive

Slide for the Academic Year 2025–26 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment

Publications

Academic Year 2025–26 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment

2023 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security EnvironmentThe Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment serves as a guide for academics and practitioners in the defense community on the current challenges and opportunities in the strategic environment. This year’s publication outlines key strategic issues across the four broad themes of Regional Challenges and Opportunities, Domestic Challenges, Institutional Challenges, and Domains Impacting US Strategic Advantage. These themes represent a wide range of topics affecting national security and provide a global assessment of the strategic environment to help focus the defense community on research and publication. Strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China and the implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remain dominant challenges to US national security interests across the globe. However, the evolving security environment also presents new and unconventional threats, such as cyberattacks, terrorism, transnational crime, and the implications of rapid technological advancements in fields such as artificial intelligence. At the same time, the US faces domestic and institutional challenges in the form of recruiting and retention shortfalls in the all-volunteer force, the prospect of contested logistics in large-scale combat operations, and the health of the US Defense Industrial Base. Furthermore, rapidly evolving security landscapes in the Arctic region and the space domain pose unique potential challenges to the Army’s strategic advantage.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/962/

Publications

2023 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment

Today’s warfighter, leader, and policymaker advance American interests while confronting a strategic environment that is dynamic and increasingly competitive. The 2021 Interim National Security Strategic Guidance depicts the global security landscape as one characterized by new crises and accelerating challenges, many of which find their locus in governments or events far from our shores.

Annual Estimate

2022 Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment