GRAY ZONE CONFLICT & INTEL

In recent years, adversarial nation states like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea have each sought to challenge the United States and its Western allies through unconventional methods
intended to achieve strategic objectives using techniques other than war. Non-state actors, such as terror groups, have also achieved strategic objectives in this way. This course will begin by introducing students to the concept of Gray Zone conflict and Gray Zone strategies. The course will examine and differentiate between Gray Zone conflict, asymmetric and hybrid warfare, and consider how Technological advances enabled the rise of each. Information operations and information warfare will be examined, as well as fake news and the role that critical infrastructure plays as a Gray Zone battlespace. Not only will Russian, Chinese, and Iranian Gray Zone strategies and behavior be examined, but also the unique factors contributing to them in each of those three countries. Finally, the course will conclude by examining some of the legal and ethical challenges that Gray Zone  conflicts present to liberal democracies and consider some of the intelligence challenges posed by Gray Zone conflict.