Five National Security Threats The Next President Will Face

... the next president will face a range of national security threats, both new and old.

Here are five national security challenges (in no particular order) either Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton or Republican nominee Donald Trump will face.

1. Radical Islamic Terrorism

The threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism is still very much a national concern 15 years after the start of the Global War on Terror. The next president will be responsible for finishing off the Islamic State and countering any threat it poses should it revert to its traditional terrorist roots.

Al-Qaida is also a persistent threat, having seen a resurgence in the chaos of Syria. Should ISIS fall apart, al-Qaida could benefit by seizing the remnants of what is left. The Taliban in Afghanistan is also in the midst of a major revival which will likely require continued U.S. support to properly counter.

2. Iranian Influence in the Middle East

Obama’s major nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran did little to stop the country from spreading its influence across the greater Middle East. In fact, Iran has expanded its influence in at least three major conflicts since.

Iranian influence is undoubtedly most prevalent in Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shiite militias make up a substantial portion of the official Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). Iran’s influence in the Houthi rebellion in Yemen also poses a national security risk, given the recent Houthi attack on U.S. ships with what are believed to be Iranian-supplied missiles. Iran also jumped at the opportunity to support its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after civil war broke out in 2011. The country is believed to control as many as 25,000 forces in Syria, according to an Israeli official.

Read the rest of this op-ed HERE.

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