Strategic Context
The Emerging Global Environment
While any attempt to describe the world thirty years in the future will inevitably come up short, emerging global trends
help establish a context to inform strategic choices. For our purpose, we anticipate several overarching trends shaping the
environment in which the Air Force will operate. More broadly, these four trend areas highlight national security challenges that airpower is well suited to address.
An increasing number of rapidly emerging technological breakthroughs will yield more opportunities for geostrategic game-changers. For example, the maturation of hydraulic fracturing technology (“fracking”) has fundamentally altered the global energy equation. The portability of information-sharing technology has enabled disaggregated communities to self-organize and threaten unstable governments. As the future unfolds, an increased awareness of the opportunities and threats created by disruptive technological change is vital, particularly the implications these changes have for geopolitical balance.
New technologies will also provide opportunities to quickly alter the economic fortunes of a country or a region, solving existing problems while generating new ones. A resulting imbalance in global economic growth, coupled with global
interdependence and increasing resource demands of rising powers will make geopolitical instability the second trend we can expect to endure over the coming decades. Nuclear proliferation will continue to complicate the international power balance. As power centers shift, our ability to leverage specific partners and dissuade specific adversaries will have a shorter lifespan. While the United States will strive to remain first among equals, other nations will rise to challenge global powers and achieve near-peer status.
Therefore, preparing for a threat based solely on current geopolitical realities will be insufficient.
The range of potential adversaries and missions will broaden due to rising geopolitical instability, resulting in a wide range of operating environments in which the Air Force will execute its missions. The proliferation of long-range precision strike weapons will allow any location on earth to be held at risk, creating global engagement zones; and airspace will be contested by increasingly advanced integrated air defense systems. On the opposite end of the spectrum, developing countries in lowinfrastructure areas will struggle to provide their populations with basic necessities. This environment fosters instability which will inevitably lead to humanitarian crises and lawless areas where illicit groups and individuals can thrive.
Increasing importance and vulnerability of the global commons will also shape the environment of the next 30 years. The air domain is recognized as an indispensable medium for personnel travel, and the global percentage of high-value cargo movement by air continues to rise – it’s currently at 35%. Space will continue as a vital domain for the global economy, as it provides critical communications; position, navigation, and timing data; and imagery that have opened the door to remarkable advancements. We can expect this domain to become further congested, and be contested by ever-increasing counter-space capabilities. Cyberspace will only grow as the recognized domain through which critical information must flow at ever-increasing volume and speed. As the global community increases its dependence on access to these commons and freedom within them, their vulnerabilities will invite actions with potentially disastrous worldwide consequences.
Accordingly, the demand for ensuring confidence in the integrity of these commons will increase in the years ahead.