Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Wednesday the United States is “witnessing the re-rise of the hostile nation state” following years of the department’s focus on non-state threats since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Our nation-state rivals are increasingly asserting themselves in ways that endanger our homeland. In fact, threats to the U.S. from foreign adversaries are at the highest levels since the Cold War,” Nielsen said during a speech at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
[Also read: Kirstjen Nielsen demands Congress make DHS cybersecurity office a ‘full-fledged agency’ by end of 2018]
Where the 15-year-old department had previously focused on countering terrorists overseas, national security officials are now focused on four countries who have shown they are willing to use financial, trade, cyber, espionage, information operations, and other means to “undermine” American interests. Nielsen said the most threatening countries are China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
Nielsen said that while the U.S. is technically not at war with those nations, they are launching quiet, constant attacks on U.S. entities.
“They are encouraging us to turn on each other — so we tear ourselves apart from the inside. We have never seen anything quite like it,” she added.
Nielsen returned to the U.S. last week after traveling to Australia and meeting with its leaders, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom about countering interference campaigns in democratic processes, like elections.
Her new vision for the department, as outlined Wednesday, is a shift from a “counterterrorism” posture to a “wider counter-threats” focus that looks at hostile nation-states.
DHS recently reorganized its intelligence units to be more like the CIA’s “mission centers.”
