
A lead Pentagon official on Thursday detailed the department’s approach to the upcoming new National Defense Strategy, which will include “integrated deterrence” as a key focus and lay out an updated force planning construct. Mara Karlin, the acting deputy under secretary of defense for policy, signaled that while China is the Pentagon’s “pacing threat,” the new strategy will place a priority on strategic competition factors rather than a sole focus on challenges presented by Beijing. “We will, in many ways,…