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Description
The nature of modern warfare has undergone a major shift. The types of warfare human civilization has witnessed exist on a continuum ranging from total war to civil peace. Until recently, the majority of armed conflicts have taken a relatively similar shape. Warfare for the last millennium entailed two or more nations confronting each other with the full might of their military capacity. Victory has been conventionally determined by either the surrender or destruction of one's foe. Other forms of war have existed that take a very different form. Labels ascribed to these forms of war include unconventional war, insurgency, rebellion, revolt, skirmish, or revolution. At bottom, these labels refer to a type of conflict that falls somewhere between the two ends—in the "Grey Area" — of the continuum. These conflicts are still aimed at imposing the will of one group or nation onto another through the use of violence and coercion; however, Grey Zone conflicts differ from conventional military encounters by deliberately remaining under the threshold of conventional military force. Grey Zone conflicts also differ in tactics and strategies, primarily utilizing methods of deception and subversion. Further, the goals that constitute success in Grey Zone conflicts are more nuanced. Rather than the conventional objective of winning via annihilation of one's foe, Grey Zone conflicts sometimes require persuading a population, gaining the acquiescence of a population or nation and avoiding the escalation of violence. This major shift in modern warfare is the rise in the frequency of Grey Zone conflicts to the point where they represent the majority of international conflicts. As such, understanding the nature of these conflicts to a more precise degree, including how major powers wage and manage them, is of paramount importance to the security of the United States. The adversarial relationship between the United States and Russia places special emphasis on understanding how Russia manages this form of war. Russia's involvement in two recent Grey Zone conflicts, Ukraine and Syria, reveals much about the ways, means, and ends the Russian government applies in the Grey Zone.
