Russia and China are competitors to the United States and both nations are looking to overturn the current rules-based international order, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today at the Atlantic Council's Commanders' Series here.
Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford said China and Russia are striving “to establish pre-eminence, if not hegemony, in their respective geographic areas and both trying to assert greater influence on the world stage.” The chairman spoke with CNN reporter Barbara Starr.
From the military's perspective, China and Russia are doing what they can to challenge the U.S. and are targeting American capabilities, Dunford said. This means the two nations are working to subvert America's network of allies and partners and are seeking to negate the American military's ability to project forces when and where needed and sustain them, he said.
Strength of Alliances
“They both recognize the strength of our allies and partners, they both recognize from careful study the U.S. ability to project power in 1991 to 2003, they recognize the competitive advantage we have had historically and what they are seeking to do is undermine the credibility of our alliance structure in Europe and the Pacific,” he said.
“They have been on a specific path of capability development to make it much more difficult and contest our ability to access any area to meet our alliance…
