ABSTRACT
Throughout the Cold War the architects of US foreign policy were able to justify ever greater arms budgets by pointing to the Soviet threat. The threat of a Soviet first strike against the mainland United States required the continual buildup and modernization of a strategic nuclear arsenal. Wars fought with conventional weapons could threaten the United States if combatants choose to escalate to weapons of mass destruction. The principal military threats facing the United States do not emanate from the former Soviet Union. Sudden shortages are another kind of economic security threat facing the United States. The most significant environmental threats facing the United States are truly global in nature. A security policy that ignores any of the military, political, economic, or environmental threats to US well-being is unworthy of the name, yet historically US security policy has ignored nearly all of them.
