Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: On October 12, 2023, the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States (referred to in this section as the Commission ) released a final report entitled America’s Strategic Posture . The report, the consensus product of a 12-person bipartisan commission led by the Honorable Madelyn Creedon and former Senator Jon Kyl— examined the latest intelligence available on current and projected global strategic threats; assessed the adequacy of existing United States strategies, policies, and capabilities for addressing such threats; and provided a series of findings and recommendations, which were subsequently made available to the President, Congress, and the general public.
The findings of the Commission reflect a rapidly deteriorating international security situation that is becoming far more dangerous for the United States and its allies and partners. The rapid and unprecedented growth of the nuclear arsenal of the People's Republic of China and the massive expansion of the armed forces of the People's Republic of China across all domains have forever altered the global balance of power. The various arms of the People’s Liberation Army can no longer be dismissed as an afterthought, and increasingly aggressive behavior by the People's Republic of China, particularly with regard to the United States and its allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region, offers little assurance that the rise of the People's Republic of China will remain peaceful.
The Government of the Russian Federation owns, and will likely maintain for the foreseeable future, the largest nuclear arsenal on Earth. While the war following the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has diminished the conventional armed forces of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation— continues to expand and diversify the nuclear arsenal, air and missile defenses, and space, cyber, biological, and chemical weapons capabilities of the Russian Federation; and regularly flaunts such capabilities as to threaten and intimidate regional neighbors.
Continued efforts by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to expand and diversify its nuclear arsenal, long-range missile systems, and chemical and biological weapons programs and the clear willingness to leverage such systems and programs to threaten and intimidate regional neighbors poses a growing danger to stability in Northeast Asia. The growth of the intercontinental ballistic missile forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea presents an acute danger to the people of the United States, considering such systems may soon be capable of overwhelming the mainland missile defenses of the United States.
The long history of aggression and support for global terrorism by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including through recent use of Hamas proxies to brutally attack Israeli and United States citizens, demonstrates that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no interest in the goals of international stability and peaceful coexistence. The Islamic Republic of Iran is committed to a long-term goal of further developing increasingly destabilizing missile technologies and acquiring nuclear weapons to dominate the greater Middle East.
Taken together, such findings reflect a global security environment very different from any the United States has ever encountered. While the United States served as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, enduring the distant existential threat the Government of the Soviet Union posed for decades, and defied the persistent daily threat of terrorism from the earliest days of the 21st century, the United States has never faced a more complex set of global threats than are arrayed before it as of the date of the enactment of this Act.
The United States, in order to maintain its position in the international order, or quite possibly its very survival, must recognize this new threat environment, and urgently take prompt, decisive action to transform its aging array of defenses, renovate long-neglected industrial capabilities, rebuild a strong and vibrant workforce, rebuild allied confidence in the support and leadership of the United States, and craft a common, unifying vision of purpose for all United States citizens.