Escalating violence in Iraq, North Korea’s latest provocations, a meeting of allies here and China’s participation for the first time in Rim of the Pacific exercises were topics at the forefront of a visit to Hawaii by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.

The world picture is one of a confused security environment — but also one that allies such as the United States, Japan and South Korea will face together, Dempsey said in a meeting with Hawaii soldiers and later during a Pacific Forum gathering Tuesday.

U.S. assessment teams are "in the process of visiting Iraqi (government) units to answer a very simple question: Will they hold?" Dempsey said at the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies event.

Also being determined is their makeup, and whether Iraqi military leaders can withstand further attacks by advancing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters.

"Then, when we have that assessment in hand, I think we’ll make some decisions about whether there’s other kinds of support that we can provide," said Dempsey, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer.

The escalation of American troops and equipment being sent to Iraq drew a separate rebuke from U.S. Rep. Colleen Hana­busa.

On Monday the Pentagon ordered 200 more troops and Apache attack helicopters into Iraq, bringing to 650 the number of Americans dispatched since mid-June, with 770 total so far authorized to go.

"Two days ago, the news was that armed U.S. drones were in the air over Iraq," Hana­busa said in a release. "Today we learned that we have deployed an unspecified number of Apache attack helicopters. We are rapidly approaching 1,000 troops on the ground in what the Pentagon admits is a ‘contested environment.’"

Hanabusa said the United States can’t afford to continue to "push the envelope of our involvement without a clear and meaningful discussion of our real intentions and the actual risks we are undertaking."

Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby faced some pointed questions on Tuesday about the tendency of small military actions to grow into bigger ones.

"There’s no mission creep," Kirby said.

Two security assistance teams and one "advise and assess" team have been sent into Iraq with "clearly defined" missions, Kirby said.

Unlike the Asia-Pacific, which is seeing a rise of nationalism and power of nation-states, the tide of nationalism in the Middle East and North Africa is receding "at a remarkable rate," Dempsey said at the Pacific Forum CSIS event at The Pacific Club.

"We see the norms of statehood being superceded by centuries-old religious, ethnic and tribal tensions," he said.

Dempsey added that in such an environment, "the traditional use of military power rarely yields expected results."

The United States military largely underwrites an international order characterized by the free flow of commerce, open access to markets and absence of great-power conflict, but budget cuts are threatening that role, he said.

Asked what keeps him awake at night in Asia, Dempsey said, "I think probably the difficulty of continuing to accomplish the task we set for ourselves in re-balancing to the Pacific" due to "security distractions elsewhere in the face of a declining budget."

"I do worry, when you (talk) about the Pacific in particular, that we really need to keep our shoulder to the task of achieving that re-balance," Dempsey said.

North Korea’s latest series of provocations has included the firing of short-range rockets into the Sea of Japan ahead of a visit to South Korea by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The North Koreans continue "to be as provocative as any nation-state on the planet." The country’s leaders have "utter disregard for any norm of behavior and are threatening (stability) not only regionally, but soon, potentially globally," Dempsey said.

"I’m extraordinarily concerned about the North Koreans," he said.

Dempsey also met in Hawaii with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan, Adm. Choi Yoon-Hee, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the Republic of Korea, and Gen. Shi­geru Iwa­saki, chief of the joint staff of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

It was the first time such a meeting has been held.

"There’s a lot of change in the Pacific, and it was an opportunity for us to talk about those changes," Dempsey said.

He said the meeting’s timing was "exceptionally good" because it coincided with the start of RIMPAC and came after Japan revised its self-defense policy to allow a broader range of military cooperation with other countries.

Dempsey was asked by Chinese media whether the People’s Republic’s first-ever participation in RIMPAC is a sign the rising power is willing to increase its military transparency, and what could be done to remove legal barriers to China’s full involvement in the exercise in the future.

Dempsey said China’s acceptance of the invitation to attend was "an important signal" that the military-to-military relationship continues to grow.

"I think going forward depends on how this year’s activities go, and depending on other military-to-military engagements, we might have the opportunity at some point to go back to the Congress of the United States and suggest to them that the aperture should be opened more broadly (for training)," Dempsey said.