Description
In recent years, the United States has shifted its strategic focus away from counterterrorism toward a renewed focus on great powers like China and Russia. In this context, Joe Biden’s campaign for the presidency included a thorough critique of the United States’ ‘forever wars’. Biden initiated a withdrawal from Afghanistan and called for an ‘over the horizon’ approach to counterterrorism. As demonstrated by the 2022 drone strike against al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and the billions in military assistance provided to Ukraine, however, Washington maintains a robust commitment to the active use of military power exercised ‘at a distance’. This paper assesses the current ‘state of play’ in US security policy by examining the relationship between the practices of remote warfare and the ‘forever wars’ that have dominated US foreign policy for more than two decades. Through an analysis of the Biden administration’s counterterrorism and national security strategy documents, the paper argues that major changes in US remote warfare are unlikely, and that it is too soon to proclaim an end to America’s ‘forever war’.
