Terrorism: Commentary on Security Documents is a series that provides primary source documents and expert commentary on various topics in the worldwide effort to combat terrorism. Volume 131, The 2012 Shift in U.S. National Security Strategy: The Context, focuses on the Obama administration's general shift beyond the conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia and towards a more Asia-Pacific national security strategy in early 2012. In thisvolume, Professor Douglas Lovelace, Jr., provides a context for the shift and describes its most important components: the multidimensional domestic and international security and economic threats posed by China, the North Korean threat, the rise of Southeast Asian terrorism, and U.S. geostrategic posturing throughoutAsia. Professor Lovelace discusses and frames these issues through reports by the U.S. Department of Defense, Congressional Research Service, U.S. Army War College, U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission, and the U.S. General Accountability Office.