Additional Strategic Guidance

The President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff may issue supplementary guidance - independent of such regular issuances as the NSS, NDS, NMS, for example - which updates or modifies national strategic objectives.

Such additional guidance may take the form of a policy speech or documents such as Secretary Panetta’s January 2012 release of “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for the 21st Century Defense,” which outlines a rebalance of forces and resources to Asia-Pacific, and GEN Dempsey’s October 2011 “Letter to the Joint Force” or February 2012 “Chairman’s Strategic Direction to the Joint Force.”