Gaining Competitive Advantage in the Gray Zone
Gaining Competitive Advantage in the Gray Zone

Author: Lyle J. Morris

Publisher:

Published: 2019-09-15

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781977403094

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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.

The Role of Information in U.S. Concepts for Strategic Competition
The Role of Information in U.S. Concepts for Strategic Competition

Author: Christopher Paul

Publisher:

Published: 2022-10-25

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781977408761

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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.

By Other Means Part I
By Other Means Part I

Author: Kathleen H. Hicks

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-10-04

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 1442281197

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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.

Mastering the Gray Zone
Mastering the Gray Zone

Author: Michael J. Mazarr

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13:

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"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.

Great Power Competition with Russia in the Gray Zone
Great Power Competition with Russia in the Gray Zone

Author: Jeffrey Lesperance

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 20

ISBN-13:

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"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.

Strategic Competition in the Financial Gray Zone
Strategic Competition in the Financial Gray Zone

Author: Heather A. Conley

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 39

ISBN-13:

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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.

By Other Means Part II
By Other Means Part II

Author: Kathleen Hicks

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-11-04

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 1442281286

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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.

Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict
Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict

Author: Aurel Sari

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 745

ISBN-13: 019774477X

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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.

A Whole-Of-Government Approach to Gray Zone Warfare
A Whole-Of-Government Approach to Gray Zone Warfare

Author: Elizabeth Troeder

Publisher:

Published: 2019-12-26

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9781651245477

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Gray zone warfare, also known as irregular warfare, political warfare, hybrid warfare, asymmetric warfare, and unconventional warfare, is increasingly becoming the norm. It is a significant concern today, threatening U.S. national security as well as the security of U.S. allies and partners. Despite its population's immense capacity for creativity and innovation, the United States is losing this war. The Department of Defense (DoD) has historically led the gray zone war fight with assistance from other Federal agencies. However, it cannot require other agencies to engage, and it cannot be aware of all of the effective tools available across the whole-of-government, nor can it know how its proposed way forward may conflict with approaches made by other agencies. This monograph provides an assessment of the gray zone tactics used against the most active U.S. adversaries, and builds the case for requiring U.S. Federal agencies to request that the Deputy National Security Advisor convene a National Security Council/Deputies Committee (NSC/DC) meeting whenever any Federal agency deems a gray zone approach to an international issue is appropriate. It also recommends that a standing National Security Council/Policy Coordination Committee (NSC/PCC) for gray zone solutions be developed, with sub-NSC/PCCs for each of the most active adversaries so that experts can be quickly assembled in times of crisis.