As the United States enters the 1980s, unforeseen events have altered the national security policy environment and dictated a reexamination of many important security policy areas. Clarity of perspective and an understanding of the issues and opportunities contained within these challenges are fundamentally important to the development of policy initiatives for the future. This Seventh Annual National Security Affairs Conference (NSAC) attempted to focus the attention of a select group of scholars, businessmen, decisionmaker, and observers on several key issues in order to articulate perspectives, sharpen understanding, and suggest policy alternatives. Several factors have shaped the challenges of the early 1980s. Unfolding events in Iran and Afghanistan have been met by sometimes divergent US and allied responses. The United States is reconsidering its historic geographic priorities for force deployment and, with consideration of SALT II suspended, the strategic balance between the United States and the Soviet Union is at question. In a quieter vein, US and Chinese relations have multiplied since the reemergence of China as a full participant in world politics and since the normalization of relations with the United States. Longer range challenges concern the potential of US technology to assist in meeting these shifting realities, and the US capability to improve the integration of its technologies, policies, and strategies.