Download or read book Gaining Competitive Advantage in the Gray Zone written by Lyle J. Morris and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-15 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States is entering a period of intensifying strategic competition with several rivals, most notably Russia and China. U.S. officials expect this competition to be played out primarily below the threshold of armed conflict, in what is sometimes termed the gray zone between peace and war. In this report, the authors examine how the United States might respond to Russian and Chinese efforts to seek strategic advantage through coercive actions in the gray zone, including military, diplomatic, informational, and economic tactics. The United States is ill prepared and poorly organized to compete in this space, yet the authors' findings suggest that the United States can begin to treat the ongoing gray zone competition as an opportunity more than a risk. Moreover, leaders in Europe and Asia view Russian and Chinese gray zone aggression as a meaningful threat and are receptive to U.S. assistance in mitigating it. In this report, the authors use insights from their extensive field research in affected countries, as well as general research into the literature on the gray zone phenomenon, to sketch out the elements of a strategic response to the gray zone challenge and develop a menu of response options for U.S. officials to consider.

Download or read book The Role of Information in U S Concepts for Strategic Competition written by Christopher Paul and published by . This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To respond effectively to a competitor's activities in the gray zone, it is important to understand how they leverage information, the ends that gray zone activities serve, and the capabilities and authorities needed to respond. A detailed enumeration of these activities, a synthesis of expert consensus on challenges to gray zone competition, and a dynamic menu of solutions can enhance the U.S. competitive position in the gray zone and beyond.

Download or read book By Other Means Part I written by Kathleen H. Hicks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-10-04 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States is being confronted by the liabilities of its strength. Competitors are finding avenues for threatening U.S. interests without triggering escalation. Their approaches lie in the contested arena between routine statecraft and open warfare—the "gray zone." The United States has yet to articulate a comprehensive approach to deterring competitors in the gray zone. A concrete and actionable campaign plan is needed to deal with the gray zone challenge; in order to do so, the United States must identify and employ a broad spectrum of tools and concepts to deter, and if needed, to compete and win contestations in the gray zone.

Download or read book Fighting in the Gray Zone A Strategy to Close the Preemption Gap written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mastering the Gray Zone written by Michael J. Mazarr and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discussions of an emerging practice of 'gray zone' conflict have become increasingly common throughout the U.S. Army and the wider national security community, but the concept remains ill-defined and poorly understood. This monograph aims to contribute to the emerging dialogue about competition and rivalry in the gray zone by defining the term, comparing and contrasting it with related theories, and offering tentative hypotheses about this increasingly important form of state competition. The idea of operating gradually and somewhat covertly to remain below key thresholds of response is hardly new. Many approaches being used today -- such as support for proxy forces and insurgent militias -- have been employed for millennia. The monograph argues that the emergence of this more coherent and intentional form of gray zone conflict is best understood as the confluence of three factors. Understood in this context, gray zone strategies can be defined as a form of conflict that pursues political objectives through integrated campaigns; employs mostly nonmilitary or nonkinetic tools; strives to remain under key escalatory or red line thresholds to avoid outright conventional conflict; and moves gradually toward its objectives rather than seeking conclusive results in a relatively limited period of time. Having examined the scope and character of gray zone conflict, the monograph offers seven hypotheses about this emerging form of rivalry. Finally, the monograph offers recommendations for the United States and its friends and allies to deal with this challenge"--Publisher's web site.

Download or read book Great Power Competition with Russia in the Gray Zone written by Jeffrey Lesperance and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The current geopolitical environment is filled with uncertainty and complexity. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States became the world's single super power in a new unipolarity. Today, after multiple decades of involvement in conflicts around the globe and two enduring wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States finds itself no longer the world's sole power. Over that last 30 years, both Russia and China have emerged as regional and global powers. Their rise to regional and global preeminence has created a multipolar world and ignited great power competition with the United States. Because the United States maintains a military advantage, both China and Russia have become adept at focusing their competition against the United States using all instruments of power, or using a whole of government approach to achieve their strategic objectives in order to avoid armed conflict. Increasingly, China and Russia use gray zone warfare, or tactics, to gain an advantage over the United States. Gray zone warfare, also known as hybrid warfare, asymmetric warfare or political warfare, is sophisticated and complex and presents the United States with numerous challenges across the globe. Russia cannot compete with the United States militarily. As a result, they resort to Gray Zone tactics to achieve their strategic and political objectives revolving around increasing and expanding their influence domestically and internationally while simultaneously attempting to undermine the United States and fracture our alliances and partnerships. Russia's Gray Zone campaigns across the globe are expanding their influence and attempting to undermine the trans-Atlantic alliance, NATO and the European Union. The United States must use a whole of government approach to counter Russian Gray Zone activities. Only a synchronized and coordinated effort using all instruments of national power can effectively counter Russian Gray Zone activities and influence."--Abstract.

Download or read book By Other Means Part II written by Kathleen Hicks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-11-04 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geopolitical competition is increasingly playing out in the space beyond diplomacy and short of conventional war, sometimes referred to as the gray zone, which is forcing the United States to confront the liabilities of its strengths. This report assesses current U.S. government actions to deter, campaign through, and respond to competitors’ gray zone tactics. Using the campaign planning framework established in By Other Means Part I, it also provides recommendations aimed at ameliorating U.S. liabilities and building on its asymmetries to improve U.S. national security in the presence of rivals’ gray zone approaches.

Download or read book What Deters and Why written by Michael J. Mazarr and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era of rising global competition, U.S. challengers and rivals are increasingly looking to achieve competitive advantage through gray zone activities-that is, acts of aggression that remain below the threshold of outright warfare. In this report, RAND researchers identify eight common characteristics of such aggression (e.g., unfolds gradually, is not attributable) and develop a framework for assessing the health of U.S. and partner deterrence in the gray zone. They apply the framework to three cases: China's aggression against the Senkaku Islands, Russia's aggression against the Baltic states, and North Korea's aggression against South Korea. The authors conclude that U.S. and partner deterrence of gray zone activities is in a reasonably strong, though mixed, condition in each of these three contexts. Finally, the authors outline the implications of their findings for the U.S. Army. Among these implications are that maintaining a local presence and posture plays an important role in conveying likely responses to aggression, and clear statements of shared intent to respond to specific actions are critical.

Download or read book Votes Drugs and Violence written by Guillermo Trejo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most surprising developments in Mexico's transition to democracy is the outbreak of criminal wars and large-scale criminal violence. Why did Mexican drug cartels go to war as the country transitioned away from one-party rule? And why have criminal wars proliferated as democracy has consolidated and elections have become more competitive subnationally? In Votes, Drugs, and Violence, Guillermo Trejo and Sandra Ley develop a political theory of criminal violence in weak democracies that elucidates how democratic politics and the fragmentation of power fundamentally shape cartels' incentives for war and peace. Drawing on in-depth case studies and statistical analysis spanning more than two decades and multiple levels of government, Trejo and Ley show that electoral competition and partisan conflict were key drivers of the outbreak of Mexico's crime wars, the intensification of violence, and the expansion of war and violence to the spheres of local politics and civil society.

Download or read book Strategic Competition in the Financial Gray Zone written by Heather A. Conley and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past 10 years, the U.S. government has slowly reoriented its foreign and security policy from the fight against global terrorism toward strategic competition with Russia and China. This reorientation has been accompanied by a new examination of how strategic competition will impact the integrity and future stability of the U.S. economy and financial system. One of the most important elements of strategic competition is sub-threshold warfare (also called asymmetric, hybrid, or gray zone warfare), wherein strategic competitors seek to shape the geostrategic environment in their favor, from information operations to economic warfare--which includes such tools as illicit finance and strategic corruption. Strategic competitors present a clear economic and financial threat to the United States when they operate in the emerging financial gray zone, in which malign actors can take advantage of the U.S. financial system to further their aims and disarm the country internally. The U.S. government, along with its allies, has only begun to acknowledge the sweeping nature of the financial gray zone and to reposition itself to compete within it. Because adversaries exploit the seams between the internal and external policies and authorities, Washington must have greater insights into a complex operating system and better integrate data across the many relevant agencies--in a way, connecting the financial dots. As it develops this comprehensive picture, the U.S. government should develop stronger defensive and offensive policy tools to counter this emerging threat.

Download or read book Gaming Gray Zone Tactics written by Becca Wasser and published by . This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The RAND Arroyo Center developed a strategic-level structured card game examining a gray zone competition between Russia and the West in the Balkans to better understand the nature of a gray zone competition with Russia.

Download or read book Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict written by Aurel Sari and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 745 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict explores the legal dimension of strategic competition below the threshold of war, assessing the key legal and ethical questions posed for liberal democracies. Bringing together diverse scholarly and practitioner perspectives, the volume introduces readers to the conceptual and practical difficulties arising in this area, the rich debates the topic has generated, and the challenges that countering hybrid threats and grey zone conflict poses for liberal democracies.

Download or read book On Theories of Victory Red and Blue written by Brad Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-10 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the United States and its allies put their military focus on the post-9/11 challenges of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, Russia and China put their military focus onto the United States and the risks of regional wars that they came to believe they might have to fight against the United States. Their first priority was to put their intellectual houses in order-that is, to adapt military thought and strategic planning to the new problem. The result is a set of ideas about how to bring the United States and its allies to a "culminating point" where they choose to no longer run the costs and risks of continued war. This is the "red theory of victory." Beginning in the second presidential term of Obama administration, the U.S. military focus began to shift, driven by rising Russian and Chinese military assertiveness and outspoken opposition to the regional security orders on their peripheries. But U.S. military thought has been slow to catch up. As a recent bipartisan congressional commission concluded, the U.S. intellectual house is dangerously out of order for this new strategic problem. There is no Blue theory of victory. Such a theory should explain how the United States and its allies can strip away the confidence of leaders in Moscow and Beijing (and Pyongyang) in their "escalation calculus"-that is, that they will judge the costs too high, the benefits to low, and the risks incalculable. To develop, improve, and implement the needed new concepts requires a broad campaign of activities by the United States and full partnership with its allies.

Download or read book Fighting in the Gray Zone A Strategy to Close the Preemption Gap written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS) rightly identified the proliferation, privatization, and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by terrorist groups and rogue states as the critical nontraditional threat of the 21st century. However, the NSS argues that in the 21st century, technology has advanced and become so readily available that we "must adapt the concept of imminent threat to the capabilities and objectives of today's adversaries." This reconceptualization of preemption defines the core question-What military strategy is appropriate for using force "to act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed"? We argue preemption is ill-suited for disrupting the converged threat of terrorists and rogue states pursuing WMD. Instead, we propose that a forcible counterproliferation (FCP) strategy is most effective for fighting in the "gray zone." Using the 2002 NSS and the problems associated with justifying the preemptive use of force in Iraq as starting points, we examine three questions: 1) How has the threat environment changed since the end of the Cold War? 2) If there is a new threat environment, what is the appropriate military strategy for that threat? 3) How can the United States justify a new strategy to domestic critics and gain international support?

Download or read book Fighting in the Gray Zone written by Joanne M. Fish and published by . This book was released on 2004-09-30 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS) rightly identified the proliferation, privatization, and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by terrorist groups and rogue states as the critical nontraditional threat of the 21st century.1 However, the NSS argues that in the 21st century, technology has advanced and become so readily available that we "must adapt the concept of imminent threat to the capabilities and objectives of today's adversaries."2 This reconceptualization of preemption defines the core question--What military strategy is appropriate for using force "to act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed"?3 We argue preemption is ill-suited for disrupting the converged threat of terrorists and rogue states pursuing WMD. Instead, we propose that a forcible counterproliferation (FCP) strategy is most effective for fighting in the "gray zone." Using the 2002 NSS and the problems associated with justifying the preemptive use of force in Iraq as starting points, we examine three questions: 1) How has the threat environment changed since the end of the Cold War? 2) If there is a new threat environment, what is the appropriate military strategy for that threat? 3) How can the United States justify a new strategy to domestic critics and gain international support? In this paper we define the convergent threat as the threshold where there is substantial evidence of a link between terrorists and rogue states pursuing WMD. Once the linkages have been made, the convergent threat becomes a converged threat. We posit the gray zone as the hazy area on the conceptual threat continuum between classically defined imminent threat and our convergent threat. Available military strategies do not address this zone very well. To determine the most effective military strategy for using force in the gray zone, we evaluate four strategies: self-defense, preemption, prevention and forcible counterproliferation. We conclude that FCP, unlike prevention, potentially initiates action against a converged threat early enough to provide an acceptable likelihood of success, while allowing other instruments of power sufficient opportunity to defuse the situation. Further, FCP manages risk and uncertainty and is the most effective strategy for harmonizing operations in the current international framework. In summary, success of FCP pivots on the administration's ability to affect four critical requirements: 1) garner international and domestic support for the strategy, 2) change international norms to allow force against converged threats, 3) adopt three sets of trigger points to ascertain when a nation has abrogated its sovereignty, thereby broaching the possibility of applying force under an FCP strategy, and 4) achieve international consensus regarding the criteria for abrogated sovereignty which would then legitimize military intervention against uncooperative states. We conclude by offering a comprehensive set of recommendations. First, the National Security Council must update the NSS by including the concept of converged threat and the strategy of FCP. Second, the Administration should build international and domestic receptivity to FCP. Finally, the Department of Defense should resource the strategy of forcible counterproliferation through a variety of programs, explained in detail in the paper, which both support and challenge the assumptions of Transformation.

Download or read book China s Securing Shaping and Exploitation of Strategic Spaces Gray Zone Response and Counter Shi Strategies written by Robert J. Bunker and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2019-12-23 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The timing of Dr. Robert J. Bunker’s new SWJ pocket book is apropos given the increasing intransigence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in both its domestic ‘police state’ security policies and foreign ‘expansionistic’ economic and military activities. This authoritarian regime—bereft of its former Marxist and Maoist ideologies except in name only—under the iron fisted leadership of ‘president for life’ Xi Jinping is increasingly in the news for the many draconian and predatory behaviors and actions in which it is now engaging. Dave Dilegge Editor-in-Chief Small Wars Journal

Download or read book Competing without Fighting written by Seth G. Jones and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-09-11 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China is conducting an unprecedented campaign below the threshold of armed conflict to expand the influence of the Chinese Communist Party and weaken the United States and its partners. The scale of China’s actions in the United States is unparalleled. This CSIS report offers one of the most comprehensive analyses to date of Chinese political warfare activities and examines China’s main actions, primary goals, and options for the United States and its partners.