The U.S. Department of Defense has released its vision of the world, the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The four-year review of U.S. military strategy provides the Pentagon's assessment of global trends and its responses to them. The QDR receives a lot of attention, but it is important to remember that this is a defense planning document. Its logic and conclusions reflect the institution that created it, and that institution is only one part of the U.S. foreign-policy-making mechanism.
As expected, the new QDR highlights the war on terror. This "long war" will require the acquisition and development of special forces to wage unconventional warfare against "dispersed global terrorist networks that exploit Islam to advance radical political aims." These groups aim to acquire weapons of mass destruction to unleash against the United States and its friends and allies around the world.
Combating this menace will require concerted action around the world, even "in countries with which the U.S. is not at war." Significantly, the QDR notes that "this struggle cannot be won by military force alone or even principally."