The current threat environment facing U.S. forces across the globe is so extensive that Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, does not believe that even famous spy novelist Tom Clancy would have been able to envision them before his death more than a decade ago.
“Tom Clancy, on his most inspired day, would probably struggle to come up with the number of serious and simultaneous events that are going on in the world right now,” Caine said Wednesday during the Billington Cybersecurity Conference.
“Just yesterday morning, before 10 a.m., we were dealing with an issue in Europe,” he added. “We were dealing with an issue in the Pacific. We were dealing [with] an issue in our own hemisphere, and, of course, an issue in the Middle East.”
As Caine mentioned, on Tuesday alone, the Israeli military carried out an unprecedented strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, while Russian drones invaded Polish airspace, leading to the first time in its history that NATO planes have engaged possible threats in allied airspace.
The Polish prime minister said the incident brought the possibility of a large-scale war “closer than at any time since the Second World War.”
Caine, who was speaking about the cyber and artificial intelligence uses for national security, said U.S. officials see “a lot of frothiness right now in the global security environment.”
Earlier this week, Caine and War Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to Puerto Rico to meet with U.S. sailors and Marines who are a part of the military’s buildup in the Caribbean area to thwart drug cartels’ operations.
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U.S. forces carried out an unprecedented strike on a vessel last week that the Trump administration claimed was being operated by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan-based gang that the administration designated a foreign terrorist organization in February. Eleven people aboard the ship were killed. The U.S. Coast Guard traditionally intercepts vessels of this kind and arrests those on board.
Clancy famously wrote the Jack Ryan series, among other popular characters that were featured in his novels.
