US faces ‘increasingly fragile world order’, say Intelligence agencies

WASHINGTON, D.C.: In their 2024 Annual Threat Assessment and in their leaders’ testimonies to Congress this week, U.S. intelligence agencies said the country faces an "increasingly fragile world order," due to great power competition, transnational challenges, and regional conflicts.

"An ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers, such as Iran, and more capable non-state actors are challenging longstanding rules of the international system as well as U.S. primacy within it," the agencies said in their report, which mainly focused on threats from China and Russia.

The report covered Russia invasion of Ukraine that began two years ago, as well as Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza that started after the October 7 attacks.

It also stressed that China is providing economic and security assistance to Moscow by supporting Russia’s industrial base and warned that Beijing could use technology to influence this year’s U.S. elections.

"China may attempt to influence the U.S. elections in 2024 at some level because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions," the report said.

In her testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines urged U.S. lawmakers to approve more military assistance for Ukraine, stressing that it was "hard to imagine how Ukraine" could hold territory it has recaptured from Russia without more assistance from Washington.

The trade between China and Russia has been increasing since the start of the Ukraine war, and Chinese exports of goods with potential military use rose more than threefold since 2022, the report further said.

Meanwhile, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said continuing to support Ukraine would discourage China from further aggression towards Taiwan or in the South China Sea.

"It is our assessment that Xi Jinping was sobered, you know, by what happened. He did not expect that Ukraine would resist with the courage and tenacity the Ukrainians demonstrated," Burns said.

Attacks by the Houthi militias on shipping and militant groups Al Qaeda and ISIS "inspired by Hamas" have directed supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and U.S. interests, he added.

FBI Director Christopher Wray then expressed concern about the "terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border."

There were also rising threats from Americans inspired by Islamist groups and other foreign militants since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, he added, stating, "The threat has gone to a whole new level."