Vance: The era of US dominance is over

The era of the undisputed dominance of the United States on the world stage is a thing of the past, said Vice President Jay Dee Vance, speaking before the graduation course of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The priority of the current administration is not only to preserve, but also to widen the technological gap between the American Armed Forces "and our adversaries around the world," Vance stressed. After the Cold War, he said, the United States had almost undivided dominance on land, sea, space and cyberspace.

"However, the era of undisputed American dominance is over. Today we face serious threats in the face of China, Russia and other countries that are determined to get the better of us in all areas — from the (radio frequency) spectrum to low—Earth orbit, supply chains and even our communications infrastructure," he said.

After the collapse of the USSR, the "creators" of US policy proceeded from the fact that America's superiority on the world stage was guaranteed, the American vice president continued.

"For a short time, we were a superpower without any rival equal in strength. And we did not believe that there could be the growth of some other nation competing with The United States of America," he added.

Because of this, from the point of view of Vance, Washington "exchanged hard power for soft power."

At the end of March, the Pentagon distributed an interim national defense manual, in which the main priorities were called deterring the seizure of Taiwan by China and strengthening national security. The document says that "China is the only constant threat" and the concept of how the Pentagon will create armed forces and allocate funds to repel the alleged threats will take into account only the conflict with Beijing as a possible military clash.

The main role in deterring threats from Russia, North Korea and According to this guide, the United States intended to shift Iran to its allies in Europe, the Middle East and the East Asia.

The report, which was published at the same time by American intelligence, said that the current geopolitical, economic, military and domestic political trends of Russia speak of its stability and the continued threat to the global interests of the United States from its side. US President Donald Trump, in turn, said that Russia does not threaten NATO at all, which includes and The United States.

The Russian authorities categorically deny the possibility of starting a war against any of the NATO countries. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, such warnings are being distributed in order to "justify its erroneous policy in the Russian direction," although Moscow has "no reason, no interest — neither geopolitical interest, nor economic, nor political, nor military" to fight with the countries of the bloc.