Dov Zakheim Quoted in The Straits Times on US Foreign Policy

While the NDS serves as a guidepost for US military development in coming years, the Pentagon has used past versions to secure bigger defence budgets from Congress, experts told China Daily on Saturday (Jan 20).

 

Mr Dov Zakheim, senior fellow at CNA Corporation and former US under-secretary of defence from 2001 to 2004, said: “If you don’t come up with a strategy, you are never going to justify getting the money”.

 

He noted that there is a nuanced difference in how China and Russia were referred to in the NDS: China was not explicitly called an adversary, likely because of the significant trade relationship.

 

“We have a stake in each other’s economy. Therefore, if their economy goes down, that doesn’t help us. If our economy goes down, that doesn’t help them. So it’s a more nuanced relationship,” he said.