Reflecting a change in strategy from "soft power" articulated by the outgoing Obama administration, Republican John McCain has made a pitch for "hard power", a stand echoed by President-elect Donald Trump's Defence Secretary nominee Gen (retd) James Mattis.
"It's the global striking power of America's armed forces that must deter or thwart the ambitions of aggressors," McCain, the Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
"Too many have forgotten that our world order is not self-sustaining. Too many have forgotten that while the threats we face may not have purely military solutions, they all have military dimensions. In short, too many have forgotten that hard power matters," he said.
McCain said there was a perception around the world that the US had become weak and distracted. "That has only emboldened our adversaries to challenge the current world order."
Even at odds with the president-elect Donald Trump, McCain has supported James "Mad Dog" Mattis as nominee for Defence Secretary.
The Senator pointed to threats posed by "violent Islamic extremism" across Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe. "It should now be clear that we will be engaged in a global conflict of varying scope and intensity for the foreseeable future. Believing otherwise is wishful thinking," he said.
The central challenge in the Middle East is not the IS, he said, but a breakdown of regional order "in which nearly every state is a battlefield for conflict, a combatant or both".
"ISIL is a symptom of this disorder. At the same time, Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions have been postponed but not halted. It continues to modernize its military, expand its malign influence and seek to remake the region in its image from Syria, to Iraq, to Yemen," he said.
McCain also listed out threats posed by China, "which is
shifting the balance of power in Asia", North Korea, which is developing an missile capable of striking the US, and Russia, which has embarked on an expansionist agenda while leaving behind "a trail of death and destruction" in Syria.
A week before the take over of the next president, McCain said the United States must build a position of significant strength vis-a-vis Russia and any other adversary that seeks to undermine the country's national interests and challenge the world order. "We must reestablish deterrence and that is primarily the job of the Department of Defence," he said.
Ruing that for too long, Department of Defence has planned and optimised itself for short-term episodic contingencies, McCain said the US now face a series of long-term strategic competitions with clear military dimensions that often occur below the threshold of armed conflict.
"What makes all of this worse is that America's military technological advantage is eroding. Our competitors, especially China and Russia, have gone to school on the American way of war and they are rapidly modernising their militaries to exploit our vulnerabilities with advanced anti-access and aerial denial capabilities," he said.
The Senator said all these problems have been compounded by caps on defence spending.
During his confirmation hearing, Mattis said, 'My priorities as secretary of Defence will be to strengthen military readiness, strengthen our alliances and bring business reforms to the Department of Defence.
