ABSTRACT
The environment in which national security policy is honed and in which threats to that security are mounted will not change completely after the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars are over. The Middle East will, for instance, continue to be the most troublesome, unstable part of the world, with places like Iran and Pakistan moving toward the center stage of concern. In addition, the continuing dependence of the United States on Persian Gulf petroleum will ensure that American interests in the region will be sufficiently engaged to prevent total American disengagement from regional matters, although changes in national resource policy discussed in this chapter will be aimed at and may succeed in reducing the problem somewhat. The Persian/Arabian Gulf, the West’s traditional oil lifeline, will continue to require monitoring as the source of international terrorism, and internal destabilization in places like Pakistan and international tensions centering on the Iranian nuclear program and Iranian-Israeli relations will be matters of concern. At the same time, the retreat from involvement in two simultaneous wars will allow a focus on problems not heretofore thought of in national security terms.
