Early last year, President Barack Obama unveiled a new defense strategy that would shift focus from the Middle East to strengthening security ties in Asia. Now, with U.S. forces set to leave Afghanistan and the looming threat of budget constraints, newly-sworn in Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a review of this new strategy to see if there are any areas for improvement, according to The Associated Press.
Pentagon officials did not say whether the review will mark a change in strategy, but they did suggest that Hagel was interested in better understanding the decision-making process that led to the shift in policy. Army leaders also said it's important to re-examine the policy due to the recently implemented cuts that will slash about $43 billion from the budget over the next several months, along with hundreds of billions more over the next 10 years.
"As I stand here, I don't yet know how much our defense strategy will change, but I predict it will," Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently, according to the AP. "We'll need to relook [at] our assumptions. We'll need to adjust our ambitions to match our abilities."
In his less than one month as Defense Secretary Hagel has already laid out some ambitious plans. Most recently, he unveiled $1 billion in missile defense plans, according to FoxNews.com.