Operating in the Gray Zone: An Alternative Paradigm for U.S. Military Strategy

by Antulio J. Echevarria II

So-called gray zone wars are not new, but they have highlighted shortcomings in the way the West thinks about war and strategy. This monograph proposes an alternative to the U.S. military's current campaign-planning framework, one oriented on achieving positional advantages over rival powers and built around the use of a coercion-deterrence dynamic germane to almost all wars as well as to conflicts short of war.

73 pages, ebook

Published April 4, 2016

Reviews

[أبو حسّان · Rating 3 out of 5]

War is an extension of politics and politics is an extension of economics.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting discussion about how the United States should synchronize foreign policy in regards to wars that are too low intensity to trigger action by the United Nations but are still challenges to U.S. interests such as the Russian military actions taken against Ukraine and the Russian involvement in Syria. Most of the focus is on coercion and deterrence as means to reach foreign policy aims, whether those themselves involve military action or simply the threat of it. Both coercion and deterrence can be undertaken by the U.S. military by strengthening our allies (like Ukraine) without actually engaging in force on force actions against the Russians, for example.