The U.S. Department of Defense states that “the U.S. military will remain an essential tool of American power in 21st century foreign policy, a tool that must be used wisely, precisely and judiciously, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said [in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday].”

“Delivering the keynote address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Global Security Forum, the secretary said most of the century’s pressing security challenges have important diplomatic, national and global economic and cultural components that cannot and will not be resolved by military strength alone.”

“’As we go forward into a historically unpredictable world,’ Hagel added, ‘we need to place more emphasis on our civilian instruments of power while adapting our military [to] remain strong, capable, second to none, and relevant in the face of threats markedly different from what shaped it during the Cold War and over the past two decades.’”