During a recent address to the National Defense University on U.S.
counterterrorism strategy, President Barack Obama cautioned that "we
must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will
define us." His comments hinted at the dramatic transformations of the
U.S. military and national security apparatus since September 11, 2001
(9/11). Notable among these have been a new operational emphasis on the
threats posed by nonstate actors and individual combatants. This trend
represents a major shift from the Cold War era paradigm focused
primarily on conventional threats from state-based adversaries. This
strategic reprioritization has evolved into new military doctrines
focused on the task of defeating networks rather than formations and
technical innovations designed for identifying, screening, and targeting
individual combatants on the battlefield.