ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the themes as concretely as possible, to deepen our understanding of the socio-cultural forces to which the military establishment has to adapt and to indicate, in broad strokes, what the possibilities for adaptation are. Analysis of military threats is rooted firmly in the tradition of political realism. The deconcentration of military capability makes the exercise of global leadership problematic and increases competition among rising powers. The end of the Cold War has only strengthened the American position in this regard; the collapse of the Soviet Union meant the collapse of the only serious military challenge the United States has had to confront. The emergence of a multi-centric world, with powerful sovereignty-free economic actors, has devalued military in favor of economic power in the calculus of national security policy. The end of the Cold War has not brought about a radical change in the hierarchy of leading military powers established following the end of World War II.
