In short, the United States faces a very different security environment from that of previous decades. More challengers exist, both traditional state-based competitors and non-state actors, and the means at their disposal to harm the United States, its allies and other interests abroad has increased dramatically. This 'democratization of destruction' makes it imperative that the United States field sophisticated long-range precision strike capabilities to meet these ever dangerous and diffuse threats. In that context, we can discuss the likely targets that long-range strike platforms would be called upon to address.

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Miller, Eric A. "Global Strike Capabilities: The Ballistic Missile Option." Astropolitics. Vol. 2 (2004): 1-31. [ 5 quotes ] [ page 5 ]