More or less?

Asset managers always scour for opportunities to create value for their investors. This mandate makes the most cause-agnostic. Wars around the world spotlight opportunities for defense-related stocks. This is good for stockholders at the expense of marginalized societies.

In a recent interview with a major financial news network, the CEO of an aerospace and defense company admitted that in the first 10 months of the Ukraine-Russia war, the US has donated 5 years' worth of America's munition supply. His company is making as many missiles and machinery as its operation permits but not fast enough to address the urgency to replenish the United States stockpile. This translates to higher earnings and revenue benefitting shareholders but the underlying fear is that the US is so spread thin in protecting its global interests that it is becoming ill-equipped to defend its own shores.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the US military has notified Congress that China has now more land-based ICBMs. Even if these ICBMs are empty, the recent shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon hovering around Montana, where most active missiles are located, further highlights the determination of the Chinese to beef up their military capability. Unbeknownst to many, a few other surveillance balloons have allegedly flown over US soil in the past couple of years.

Spying is something communist countries with lofty ambitions are quite good at. Especially, if they band together and share intelligence much like NATO and other western alliances do. Where before the Russians were the most closely watched threat to the west, China, through its economic entanglement in most parts of the world, has managed to develop a strategy that could handicap the US both economically and politically. Suffice it to say, Russia, China, and the United States are the most dominant military in the world depending on how one defines 'dominant', no other country comes close to the arsenal, active and reserve military personnel, and global reach than these countries. Though the most advanced technology belongs to Israel, China has had a presence in Africa for decades in providing infrastructure aid. They also have made advances in the long-standing posturing in the Spratly islands. It's a chess match with cat-and-mouse games sprinkled around.

So, is the US being boxed in while trying to defend its numerous resource-heavy political and economic interests around the world? Is more might becoming less effective in the long run?