The renewal of great power competition was acknowledged alongside other considerations in theObama Administration’s June 2015 National Military Strategy, and was placed at the center of theTrump Administration’s December 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS) and January 2018National Defense Strategy (NDS). The December 2017 NSS and January 2018 NDS formallyreoriented U.S. national security strategy and U.S. defense strategy toward an explicit primaryfocus on great power competition with China and Russia. Department of Defense (DOD) officialssubsequently identified countering China’s military capabilities as DOD’s top priority.The renewal of great power competition profoundly changed the conversation about U.S. defenseissues from what it was during the post-Cold War era: Counterterrorist operations and U.S.military operations in the Middle East—which were moved to the center of discussions of U.S.defense issues following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and which continue to beconducted—are now a less-dominant element in the conversation, and the conversation nowfeatures a new or renewed emphasis on the following, all of which relate to China and/or Russia: