The State Department on Friday voiced disagreement with a top Pentagon official’s characterization of Russia as the greatest threat to the U.S., largely because of its nuclear capability. During the Senate Armed Services Committee’s confirmation hearing Thursday of Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dunford said that Russia is the greatest threat to U.S. national security. “General Dunford is expected to provide his views, his assessment on which nations or entities pose a threat to the United States, and that’s his job,” Deputy State Department spokesman Marc Toner said on July 10 during the department’s daily press briefing. “We certainly…recognize the challenges that Russia, primarily through its actions in Ukraine, poses to the region….[W]e’ve taken many steps, from reassurance measures with our NATO allies to pursuing a peaceful diplomatic solution in Ukraine via the Minsk commitments and implementation of them to address those challenges. But I would add that the Secretary [of State John Kerry] doesn’t agree with the assessment that Russia is an existential threat to the United States[.]”
During Thursday’s hearing, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) asked Dunford what distinguishes Russia as the greatest threat to the U.S. “[I]n Russia, we have a nuclear power,” said Dunford, currently Marine Corps Commandant. “We have one that not only has capability to violate sovereignty of our allies and to do things that are inconsistent with our national interests, but they’re in the process of doing so.”
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