The US is diversifying its military policy away from simultaneous battle engagement to focus on a range of threats, from terrorism and cyber attacks to drug trafficking and conflicts triggered by climate change, according to the Pentagon's latest strategic outlook released Monday.

Military observers say the legislatively mandated review marked a major military policy shift compared with previous administrations and could provide insight into the future military strategy of the Obama administration.

"In the mid- to long-term, US military forces must plan and prepare to prevail in a broad range of operations that may occur in multiple theaters in overlapping time frames," the US Department of Defense says in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).

It is no longer appropriate to speak of regional conflicts as the sole or even primary templates for sizing, shaping or evaluating US forces," according to the a draft of the review obtained by Inside Defense.

The review sets a long-term course for the Pentagon, as it assesses the threats and challenges that the nation faces and reorients the Pentagon's strategies, capabilities and forces to address today's conflicts and tomorrow's threats.

Meng Xiangqing, a professor of military strategy at the University of National Defense, told the Global Times that the debt-ridden US government does not have the ability to fight two major conventional wars at the same time, and the policy change is compatible with Obama's military contraction strategy and his call for cooperation.

In 1993, former president Bill Clinton's defense secretary, Les Aspin, ran the "Bottom-Up Review" that created the simultaneous two major regional contingencies standard for military readiness.

The 2001 QDR stated that "US forces will remain capable of swiftly defeating attacks against US allies and friends in any two theaters of operation in overlapping timeframes."

Li Daguang, another scholar at the University of National Defense, said the policy adjustment is based on the US' current security demands.

"There is no need for the US military to prepare for war with Russia, which doesn't constitute a real threat to the US now, or China, which insists on peaceful development," Li said.

"China" has been a key word in the previous three QDRs.

In the 1996 QDR, the first review requested by Congress following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, while China was a "potential strategic competitor" with comparable clout, grouped with Russia.

The 2001 QDR implicitly identified China as "a military competitor with a formidable resource base" that would likely come into conflict with the United States in the future.

The 2006 QDR restated the US view that China has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the US and use disruptive military technologies that could offset traditional US military superiority.

CNN said that the 2006 review was heavily focused on the threat of a large-scale conventional war with China.

The previous review under the Bush administration in 2006 was known for its arro-gant tone, while the latest one is likely to underscore cooperation with Beijing, despite its disguised hostility toward Beijing, a Beijing-based military strategist, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times.

CNN said that the 2010 review still stresses the threat from China, but will look at the need to defend against a growing threat of cyber attacks – without directly tying China to past cyber attacks, according to Pentagon officials – and China's focus on preemptively striking and crippling an adversary ahead of a large attack.

Alluding to China in his cover letter, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates cites longer-term threats such as "the military modernization programs of other countries," Bloomberg reported Monday.

It added that the US military is drawing up a new air-sea battle plan in response to such threats, which would combine the strengths of each service to conduct long-range strikes.

"Defense is vital as China and the US are far from being allies," said Zhao Xiaozhuo, a researcher with the World Military Department at the People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Science.

The review also calls for "a more widely distributed" and flexible US presence in Asia that relies more on allies. Partners would include Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The US government has long tried to shift its military focus from the Atlantic to the Pacific, especially the western Pacific, and build a bloc with its Asian allies to form an Asia-based "NATO," Meng Xiangqing said.

"The US' closer ties with its Asian allies could help build a ring of encirclement to deter China," Meng noted.

The review also, for the first time, identifies global warming as a potential trigger of instability and urges the military to renew efforts to reduce its independence on oil.

Besides future threats, the review places top priority on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and against terrorist threats elsewhere.

According to Pentagon officials, Gates will be asking for $708 billion in 2011, including funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – $44 billion more than the 2010 budget of $664 billion, which was also announced Monday.