The ‘new’ type of war that finally has the Pentagon’s attention

Note Congressman Thornberry's comments.  Below is the verbiage in the mark-up of the NDAA. (note use of unconventional and counter unconventional warfare).  We have to be able to operate in the "gray zone" between peace and war.  As Frank Hoffman says we cannot think of things in terms of black and white.  Are we going to learn from George Kennan when he wrote in 1948? "Political warfare is the logical application of Clausewitz's doctrine in time of peace. In broadest definition,

political warfare is the employment of all the means at a nation's command, short of war, to achieve its national
objectives.

​"​ 

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/65ciafounding3.htm

The bottom line is:

1.  Are we going to get comfortable operating in the space between peace and war that is described by hybrid, political and unconventional warfare?

2.  Are we willing to do strategy in that space to achieve our policy objectives?

3.  Are we willing to inform the national leadership that we have the will and capability to operate in that space between peace and war and conduct our own forms of hybrid, political and unconventional warfare?

I suggest a read of the USASOC SOF Support to Political Warfare White Paper: http://maxoki161.blogspot.com/2015/03/sof-support-to-political-warfare-white.html

This kind of warfare transcends traditional notions of one military confronting another by incorporating both conventional and unconventional forces, information warfare such as propaganda, as well as economic measures to undermine an enemy, according to Frank Hoffman, a professor at the National Defense University.“The critique was, and still is, that America’s view of war is overly simplified,” he said. “We think of things in black-and-white terms. The newly fashionable term is a relatively old concept — its essential elements had been part of Russia’s and China’s military doctrines long before the Kremlin sent its so-called “little green men” into Crimea, according to Hoffman.“This is something that we have to do better as the United States to identify and deal with,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in an interview. “This poses a challenge for us, and adversaries know that. They’re looking to run between the seams and confuse and delay us.”In the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, Thornberry has included a provision calling on the Pentagon to develop a strategy to counter hybrid warfare.“Hopefully, this provision in the bill helps Secretary Carter get more of the thinking and the intellectual heft of the department in helping us have a more effective response,” Thornberry said

http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS26/20150422/103282/BILLS-114HR1735ih-U1.pdf 

Section 10XX—Department of Defense Strategy for Countering Unconventional Warfare 

 This section would required the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the President and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to develop a strategy for the Department of Defense to counter unconventional warfare threats posed by adversarial state and non-state actors. This section would require the Secretary of Defense to submit the strategy to the congressional defense committees within 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act. The committee is concerned about the growing unconventional warfare capabilities and threats being posed most notably and recently by the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The committee notes that unconventional warfare is defined most accurately as those activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary, or guerrilla force in a denied area. The committee also notes that most state-sponsors of unconventional warfare, such as Russia and Iran, have doctrinally linked conventional warfare, economic warfare, cyber warfare, information operations, intelligence operations, and other activities seamlessly in an effort to undermine U.S. national security objectives and the objectives of U.S. allies alike. 

The ‘new’ type of war that 

finally has the Pentagon’s 

attention

Special Forces of the Polish army attack a house during NATO military exercises in June. The force is NATO's response to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff July 3 at 6:28 PM  

The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about how to combat “hybrid warfare,” the combination of stealth invasion, local proxy forces and international propaganda that Russia used to annex Crimea and destabilize eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials said.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Thursday released the 2015 National Military Strategy in which he cited Russia’s actions in Ukraine and said “hybrid conflicts” will persist well into the future.

This kind of warfare transcends traditional notions of one military confronting another by incorporating both conventional and unconventional forces, information warfare such as propaganda, as well as economic measures to undermine an enemy, according to Frank Hoffman, a professor at the National Defense University.

“The critique was, and still is, that America’s view of war is overly simplified,” he said. “We think of things in black-and-white terms.”

The issue animated Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter’s recent trip to Europe.

“How do we confront cyberattacks, propaganda campaigns and hybrid warfare?” Carter asked during a speech in Berlin. “How do we ensure we can deal with more than one challenge at a time?”

The newly fashionable term is a relatively old concept — its essential elements had been part of Russia’s and China’s military doctrines long before the Kremlin sent its so-called “little green men” into Crimea, according to Hoffman.

“This is something that we have to do better as the United States to identify and deal with,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, in an interview. “This poses a challenge for us, and adversaries know that. They’re looking to run between the seams and confuse and delay us.”

In the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, Thornberry has included a provision calling on the Pentagon to develop a strategy to counter hybrid warfare.

(Continued at the link below)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-new-type-of-war-that-finally-has-the-pentagons-attention/2015/07/03/b5e3fcda-20be-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html