Professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, this is the 2019 annual U.S. intelligence community worldwide threat assessment presented by DNI Director Dan Coats in Congressional testimony on January 29, 2019. In the published report, Coats provides a thorough review of the status of possible threats from a wide variety of nations and terror groups. In addition to the 2019 assessment, this compilation includes the 2018 and 2017 worldwide threat assessments for comparison and historical reference.
Topics covered in the report include:
Introduction * Contents * Foreword * Global Threats * Cyber * Online Influence Operations And Election Interference * Weapons of Mass Destruction and Proliferation * Terrorism * Counterintelligence * Emerging and Disruptive Technologies and Threats to Economic Competitiveness * Space and Counterspace * Transnational Organized Crime * Economics and Energy * Human Security * Regional Threats * China and Russia * East Asia * Middle East and North Africa * South Asia * Russia and Eurasia * Europe * Africa * The Western Hemisphere
Threats to U.S. national security will expand and diversify in the coming year, driven in part by China and Russia as they respectively compete more intensely with the United States and its traditional allies and partners. This competition cuts across all domains, involves a race for technological and military superiority, and is increasingly about values. Russia and China seek to shape the international system and regional security dynamics and exert influence over the politics and economies of states in all regions of the world and especially in their respective backyards.
China and Russia are more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s, and the relationship is likely to strengthen in the coming year as some of their interests and threat perceptions converge, particularly regarding perceived U.S. unilateralism and interventionism and Western promotion of democratic values and human rights.
As China and Russia seek to expand their global influence, they are eroding once well-established security norms and increasing the risk of regional conflicts, particularly in the Middle East and East Asia.
At the same time, some U.S. allies and partners are seeking greater independence from Washington in response to their perceptions of changing U.S. policies on security and trade and are becoming more open to new bilateral and multilateral partnerships.
The post-World War II international system is coming under increasing strain amid continuing cyber and WMD proliferation threats, competition in space, and regional conflicts. Among the disturbing trends are hostile states and actors' intensifying online efforts to influence and interfere with elections here and abroad and their use of chemical weapons. Terrorism too will continue to be a top threat to U.S. and partner interests worldwide, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The development and application of new technologies will introduce both risks and opportunities, and the U.S. economy will be challenged by slower global economic growth and growing threats to U.S. economic competitiveness.
